It’s hard to make healthcare decisions for you and your family with limited information. Keeping your records puts you and your doctors on the same playing field so you can work together to improve your family’s health, but the modern world gives parents very little time to put together a comprehensive set of family health records.
This difficulty is more pronounced than anywhere else in children with chronic conditions like epilepsy or asthma who require careful monitoring. Irregular flare-ups and minor emergencies can happen at any time and are hard to track by hand.
On the other end of the spectrum, it’s all too easy for the everyday needs of children with insulin dependence and other diagnoses that need to be taken care of every day to slip through the cracks.
When you’re stretched thin, trying to track every incident, make sure everyone has the right medication at the right time, and get everyone to their appointments, vital appointments can slip through the cracks. It’s exhausting!
But there is an answer: a health management app.
Medical History Apps Are the Solution
Medical history apps make it easy to track your family’s healthcare information in a single place, from a single device. You already carry your phone in your pocket or have it nearby almost 24/7.
By having all of your family records so close, you have a great way to enter information fast and on the go, while you remain confident that it’s stored and ready to access at any time.
When it puts all of your records in your hands, a medical records app puts the power to make the right decisions back in your hands, too.
What an App for Health Management Needs
Every app is different, and if you’re going to trust an app to store your family’s information, you need to be confident you’ve found the best healthcare navigation app out there.
Here are a few key features that every health management app should have that help tell you that you made the right choice.
Security
More than anything else, an app must ensure the safety of your family’s medical records. Protected health information (PHI) is protected by law under HIPAA, which has very strict guidelines about the way that companies can store and transmit information about peoples’ health.
If you find an app that doesn’t share a HIPAA certification or similar compliance statement, look elsewhere!
Accessibility
Like all apps, your health management app should be easy to access and intuitive to use. It needs to empower you to work fast without feeling like a hassle, and it should make you feel in control rather than like you must fight to do anything.
This one is up to you and your unique tastes, so try a few that fit the other criteria to find one that clicks.
Integrations
The app should empower you to use other applications already included on your phone so that its functionality is efficient.
Clock
Some medications must be administered at specific times of day, every day. A health management app that interfaces with the clock and alarm system on your phone help meet your family’s personalized needs. The app’s settings can be built around your schedule and prescriptions.
It might also record that you administered the medicine to the person who needs it or that appointments are coming up.
Life is busy. We all need a few reminders!
Calendar
A calendar can help you keep track of children’s asthma attacks or other flare-ups, which empowers you to report them to your children’s doctor with perfect accuracy.
Camera
Records can involve your finances just as much as they do your health. Some health management apps can scan receipts and other documents to build a library that takes up less space than paper copies.
Contacts
You can also monitor who you contacted, who contacted you, when, and what you talked about. By keeping track of conversations with doctors, caregivers, and specialists, you put the power of past references back in your hands and avoid “he-said, she-said” conversations.
Sound Too Good to Be True? Not for Long — Acensa Is Coming
Acensa is building an app designed to give busy families the power to make informed health decisions. Join our waitlist for more exciting developments!