Best Medical Apps for Travel
You’re excited about an upcoming overseas trip you’re planning, and you want to be sure you have access to high-quality health care while you’re there. But, you might find yourself needing medical advice in a hurry, unable to wait for an appointment or trip to a hospital. In that case, you’ll want helpful medical information available at your finger tips so you get immediate answers.
We have assembled a directory of some of the best medical apps to use for international travel, grouped by the following categories:
Medical Apps for International Travel
HealthTap (iOS and Android) Provides quick answers and tips from 50,000 reputable U.S. doctors for no charge. Can also request a live doctor consultation for a fee.
WebMD (iOS and Android) First aid decision-making and health improvement by providing mobile access 24/7 to mobile-optimized health information and decision-support tools including WebMD’s Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings. WebMD the App also gives you access to first aid information without having to be connected wirelessly – critical if you don’t have Internet access in the time of need.
mPassport (iOS and Android) Lists medical providers and pharmacies in several cities around the globe and lets you make appointments. The app lists equivalent medication brand names and translates important medical terms and phrases; you can also hear them spoken in the local language. It also lets you connect directly with some emergency services.
Ask A Doctor (iOS and Android) Instant answers from doctors, 24×7. This app allows you to write your health query, attach a picture or your latest lab report and post to doctors across the world in just a few taps. Your answer arrives in minutes thanks to their 15,000+ strong doctor network spread across geographies and time zones.
Doctor on Demand (iOS and Android) A doctor on demand service that lets you see a certified doctor for a video consultation service. The doctor can then write you a prescription, advise you on treatment plans, or respond to non-emergency medical issues. The app utilizes over 1,400 state-licensed physicians from all across the U.S. The app is free, but prices for consultations start at $40 for 25 minutes and $70 for 50 minutes.
HealthTap (iOS and Android) Provides quick answers and tips from 50,000 reputable U.S. doctors for no charge. Can also request a live doctor consultation for a fee.
WikiHow Survival Kit (iOS and Android) Packed with more than 120,000 articles, the WikiHow app will surely have the survival answer you need.
CareZone (iOS and Android) Helps you manage your medications/prescriptions, keep track of instructions from your doctor and keep a list of important information related to your health. You can assign permission to loved ones to access this information. The app removes the stress of remembering everything or trying to locate prescriptions when your loved ones travel overseas.
ICE Medical Standard with Smart911 (iOS and Android) Your phone can serve as a backup location for all your emergency medical information. It will house everything from your height, weight and blood type to your allergies and most recent vaccinations and medications, as well as insurance information. It can also help you find emergency services (fire, ambulance and police) in more than 200 countries, and it stores emergency contacts. iOS – $1.99; Android – $1.98; abridged Android version – free
MyChart (iOS and Android) Creates a direct communication channel between patients and health care providers. Patients can access medical records, send a non-urgent message to their clinic and receive a response, and request prescription refills. Patients can also check test results, track medical treatments and immunizations, pay medical bills, manage appointments, access family health information and upload health and fitness data from other health-tracking apps.
WebMD Allergy (iOS and Android) Based on the allergies you have, the free WebMD Allergy app will help you prepare for each day with a personalized allergy and weather forecast along with doctor-approved tips that can be customized to your and your family’s specific allergies. You can also track how you feel, record symptoms and treatments, and add notes through an easy-to-use allergy tracker.
Glucose Buddy (iOS and Android) The easiest way to track blood sugar over time with weekly reports and action plans to keep your glucose in check. Intuitive and easy.
The Bump (iOS and Android) Delivers all the helpful information from their website directly to your smartphone to help you track and foster baby’s development. With a daily, personalized article feed, baby registry platform, a planner guide to help you prep for your doctor visits and a Real Answers section where you get personalized expert answers to all your pregnancy questions, this app is by your side every step of your pregnancy journey.
Pregnancy + (iOS and Android) Recommended by the U.K.’s National Health Service and used by millions of people to track their pregnancies. It tracks health information for soon-to-be mothers, logs doctor’s appointments, includes a kick counter, has a place to upload color baby scan images, and provides daily information about the user’s pregnancy.
Sprout Pregnancy (iOS and Android) Offers full-screen, 3-D interactives of how the baby, its organs, limbs and facial features develop from week to week. Each slide shows the next stage in fetus’ development with 3 – 4 buttons per slide that pop up with interesting facts. It has a “The Doc Says” tab, which offers a week-by-week explanation of symptoms you are probably experiencing as the fetus grows. It also includes a weight tracker, a baby kick counter, a contraction timer and an organizer to keep track of appointments and prepare for your baby’s arrival.
Text4Baby (iOS and Android) The service is run by the National Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Coalition, and uses text messages. Users remain anonymous; all you need to input is your due date and your ZIP code. You can then avail of a stream of informative, reassuring text messages that are sent in relation to your due date. This handy service is free, and it also doesn’t cost anything to receive the messages.
CDC Yellow Book (iOS and Android) This health information for international travel is published every 2 years as a resource for health professionals providing care to international travelers. It includes the U.S. government’s current travel health guidelines, including pre-travel vaccine recommendations, destination-specific health advice, and easy-to-reference maps, tables, and charts.
Doximity (iOS and Android) Doximity is the largest medical professional network in the U.S., with over 40 percent of physicians as members. Through both mobile and web platforms, physicians can use Doximity’s free tools for HIPAA-secure communication, electronic faxing, reading custom-curated medical news, and career management. Doximity is designed exclusively for healthcare professionals.
DynaMed Mobile (iOS and Android) Created by physicians for physicians, DynaMed is the leading evidence-based clinical resource for use at the point of care. DynaMed subscribers get the full functionality of the decision support tool on their smartphone or other device. Functionality includes disease references, point of care information, and summaries of over 3,400 different topics, with constant updates as DynaMed’s team looks over new studies and evidence to add to the database.
Epocrates (iOS and Android) With more than 1 million active members (50 percent being U.S.-based physicians), Epocrates is being used by top doctors to look up drug information, find other providers for consults and referrals and quickly calculate patient measurements like BMI. The app itself and most of its content is free, access to additional information and functionality (like lab guides, alternative medications, and disease information) requires an in-app purchase of Epocrates Essentials.
Figure 1 (iOS and Android) A community for medical and nursing professionals to safely share clinical cases and discuss treatment. Hundreds of thousands of users send, comment on and search through medical images in Figure 1’s visual database. This app is perfect for physicians looking for feedback on a rare condition, or seeking to see and learn about rare or textbook cases. Additionally, the app guarantees patient privacy with automatic face-blocking and removal of identifying information.
Medscape for WebMD (iOS and Android) The leading medical resource most used by physicians, medical students, nurses and other healthcare professionals for clinical information. It is the highest rated, fastest growing free mobile app for healthcare professionals with over 4 million registered users. It supplies reliable information on more than 7000 drug references, 2500 clinical images, CME activities, 3500 clinical references and hundreds of procedure videos/pictures. Medscape’s community accounts for about 250,000 physicians who can exchange experience and provide each other with advice.
Pepid (iOS and Android) One of the best apps for diagnosing as it enables healthcare specialists to input the symptoms and get the list of the possible disorders. Such a tool helps to take into account a range of outcomes and make the right point-of-care decisions. The app’s features also include search capabilities with auto-completion, notes, access to CME credits, hundreds of dosing calculators, diagnosis generator, and others.
Read by QxMD (iOS and Android) Centralizes medical literature in a magazine format so that doctors can download specific articles when they need it. To access some of the journals or PubMed (National Library of Medicine) sources doctors may need the institutional or individual subscription. With Read, doctors can get full PDF texts with one tap, browse through the numerous topic reviews, journal collections, organize personal collections, and share articles with colleagues via social media and email.
Skyscape Medical Library (iOS and Android) Provides physicians, nurses, and students with access to over 400 resources from leading publishers, authors, and medical societies. The idea of the app is to provide doctors with the most relevant up to date information to make conscious professional decisions.
The app contains both free and premium content. The free content includes comprehensive information on thousands of brands and generics, medicine interactions and dosing calculators. The physicians can find clinical information on hundreds of diseases and symptom-related topics, presented in a convenient outline format as well as news of the industry. As a paid option, healthcare professionals can find more than ten handbooks on diseases and disorders, medication manuals, and medical dictionaries.
UpToDate Users of this application can get answers to medical questions anytime, anywhere. It is a continuing education resource that is recognized by colleges, associations, and authorities from around the world. However, it is not available in all markets and requires specific recommendations. Except for the educational function, the service includes mobile-optimized medical calculators, bookmarks and history, and inbuilt email functions for communication with patients and other doctors.
Virtual Practice for Doctors (iOS and Android) Enables physicians to engage and communicate with your patients easily and effectively using your smartphone or mobile device, while providing you with access to their health data. The app helps manage your patients and medical practice, at your convenience, with a responsiveness and efficiency that ensures better healthcare outcomes.
In addition to these apps, there are also some helpful books that you can bookmark or download to your phone or tablet:
Good Neighbor Insurance offers a free Guide To Overseas Medicine by Dr. John Askew.
The Village Medical Manual, 7th edition, by Mary Vanderkooi M.D., D.T.M.&H. from William Carey Publishing. A user-friendly, two-volume healthcare guide for lay workers in developing countries with special features that trained medical professionals would also find useful. Its intended use is for those who are required, by location and circumstances, to render medical care.
Where There is No Doctor, by David Werner, published by Hesperian Health Guides. The most widely used health care manual for health workers, educators, and others involved in primary health care and health promotion around the world. Current edition includes updated information on malaria, HIV, and more. There are also new advanced chapters of this book available.
Where Women Have No Doctor by A. August Burns, Ronnie Lovich, Jane Maxwell and Katharine Shapiro, published by Hesperian Health Guides. An essential resource that helps a community understand, treat and prevent many health problems that affect women. Topics include reproductive health, violence, mental health, HIV, and more.
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These medical apps can help you stay healthy and get the care you need while traveling. But don’t forget to purchase travel health insurance before you leave to make sure you are covered if something bigger happens. Let Good Neighbor Insurance serve you by finding the perfect plan to meet your needs.