The concept of a symptom checker is familiar — we've been self-diagnosing on WebMD for more than a decade, and the plethora of Q&A sites and blogs puts more health information at our fingertips than we could ever need. Meanwhile, the medical industry is characterized as being slow to innovate.
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On Monday, AskMD launched on iOS7 to bridge the gap between self-directed health management and the in-person care we get from a doctor's visit. The app comes from Sharecare, a health Q&A site.
The key feature of AskMD is a symptom checker, but with a twist — instead of self-diagnosis, the symptom checker results in a short fact sheet with the goal of optimizing your doctor's visit. If your symptoms indicate a serious condition, the app will provide information for the nearest emergency room.
The company has worked with physicians to create an experience for patients that will help doctors do their job better. The app prompts users to be specific about symptoms so they're better prepped to describe the condition once in the same room as their doctor.
"We're helping users be better historians of their health," says Toni Pashley, VP of Product at Sharecare.
Any conditions you flag after using the symptom checker will be saved to your profile. Each user account can have multiple people on their profile — so you can run the symptom checker for your children or others you care for without needing to update the demographic information each time.
But tracking health data is perhaps not the most useful feature of AskMD — users can also store the name and contact information of doctors as well as any medications in the app (for multiple people), as to always have this information handy. The app will also provide a list of doctors, which can be filtered by specialty, location and insurance.
The results from the symptom checker actually include references such as medical studies. The knowledge gap between physicians and their patients is lessened, at least when it comes to that patient's personal health.
The app, which can be downloaded on iPhone or iPod Touch, takes advantage of iOS7 design elements — as you move through the symptom checker you'll see a series of hexagons changing color to visualize your progress. On your profile there's also a visualization of your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Sharecare was founded by Dr. Oz and Jeff Arnold, who also founded of WebMD.
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