article_snippet: However, instead of returning to her GP GP to ask for a hospital appointment, Sian, from Boston, Lincolnshire, turned to her mobile phone for medical advice.
article_snippet: With 100,000 health apps available in Britain and more launching every week, the medical sector is a market leader — with apps to track calories consumed and kilometres jogged, give first aid advice, provide cognitive behavioural therapy for phobias and remind people to take medication.
article_snippet: In 2013, the global market for health apps was worth $2.4 billion, according to market research firm research2guidance — and this is predicted to rise to $26 billion by 2017.
article_snippet: The NHS has launched the Health and Symptom Checker, and the use of apps in the health service is only set to increase.
article_snippet: Last week, The NHS emerged that The NHS is now helping to launch apps to help people cope with depression.
article_snippet: And there’s evidence that with health apps, people are able to have a more grown-up relationship with people doctors and nurses.
article_snippet: But critics say apps need regulation before we encourage doctors — and
article_snippet: Dr Dhaliwal recommends the NHS Health Apps Library (apps.nhs.uk
article_snippet: Dr Dhaliwal also recommends myhealthapps.net, an independent website that lists hundreds of apps, with a ‘five heart’ rating system based on reviews by patient groups, consumers and carers globally.
article_snippet: Whether British doctors will welcome the e-health revolution — and British doctors patients brandishing mobile phones in the consulting room
article_snippet: A recent survey of family doctors found eight in ten reported patients becoming more anxious as a result of using apps.
article_snippet: Dr Martin Scurr, Good Health’s GP, says apps ‘will never be a substitute for an appointment with the doctor’.