Report Ranks Top Physician-Recommended Mobile Health Apps

Mobile applications from Weight Watchers, the American Red Cross and MyFitnessPal are among physicians' top-rated health apps, according to rankings from HealthTap, mHealthNews reports.

Ranking Details

For the rankings, HealthTap surveyed more than 65,000 physicians within its network and an additional 500,000 within its referral network. The physicians were asked about their recommendations on various health and wellness apps.

The apps were judged on:

  • Medical accuracy and effectiveness;
  • Usability; and
  • Validity and soundness.

HealthTap compiled the results into the top 100 iOS and Android apps. The company also organized the data into 30 lists of more specific categories, such as apps related to diabetes care and running.

The apps were not given number rankings and were instead ranked by how many physicians publicly recommended them (Wicklund, mHealthNews, 1/20). According to MobiHealthNews, HealthTap did not specify the total number of physicians who endorsed an app (Comstock, MobiHealthNews, 1/20).

Mobile Health App Rankings

According to HealthTap, the top-rated health and medical apps for the Android operating system are:

  • Weight Watchers Mobile, created by Weight Watchers International;
  • White Noise Lite, a sleeping app created by TMSoft;
  • Lose It!, created by FitNow;
  • First Aid, created by the American Red Cross; and
  • RunKeeper -- GPS Track Run Walk, created by FitnessKeeper.

The top-rated health and medical apps for the iOS operating system are:

  • Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker, created by MyFitnessPal.com;
  • Weight Watchers Mobile;
  • Lose It!;
  • White Noise Lite; and
  • First Aid (mHealthNews, 1/20).

The rankings showed the top categories for health apps for both iOS and Android focused on:

  • Children's health;
  • Healthy eating; and
  • Heart health (Gold, "Morning eHealth," Politico, 1/21).

The highest-ranked apps by category included:

  • Azumio's Glucose Buddy, which was the top-rated diabetes app for both iOS and Android;
  • Azumio's Instant Heart Rate, which was the top-rated fitness and exercise app for Android;
  • BabyBump Pregnancy, which was the top-rated pregnancy and fertility app for both iOS and Android;
  • FitBit, which was the top-rated fitness and exercise app for iOS (MobiHealthNews, 1/20);
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics' KidsDoc, which was the top-rated children's health app for iOS; and
  • BabyCenter's My Baby Today, which was the top-rated children's health app for Android ("Morning eHealth," Politico, 1/21).
Source: iHealthBeat, Wednesday, January 21, 2015