Nursing the Flu With Help From Apps

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Thursday, December 06, 2012

Nursing the Flu With Help From Apps

By KIT EATON

I wasn’t my usual self earlier this week. Some nasty flu bug had beaten me, reducing your usual quirky, chipper columnist to a feverish, bedridden shadow. It’s never fun being ill, and I’ve never been a good patient because all the sensible advice to stay warm, hydrated and in bed leads to boredom.

During this bout I was much better behaved because my smartphone, jammed with entertaining apps and Internet access, was a great sickbed companion. Apps can do more than keep you company; they can give you medical advice. And as the season of coughs and sneezes settles in, an app may even help you determine what’s wrong.

For a medical app that covers a plethora of icky illnesses, WebMD is probably your best bet (free for iPhone, iPad and Android). It’s jammed with data, and can present it to you in a number of ways. A hypochondriac’s dream, the app’s Symptom Checker first asks that you tap on the corresponding part of an image of the body and then, choosing from detailed lists, specify which symptom you have. Once you select a symptom, the app leads you through a short question-and-answer session to refine your input, like exactly what kind of cough you have. You can input a number of symptoms, perhaps adding sneezes, for example, and then press the “view possible conditions” button.

The app lists all the conditions your symptoms may match, so you need to read each one earnestly to see if it describes your situation. It’s written in plain language, and links help you find treatment or more information online. A tab takes you to pages describing symptoms in more detail, and another takes you to detailed articles about the condition.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.