Health Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iPhone and Words with Friends save a life

by Chris Rawson (Jan 16th, 2012)

The widely-played word game Words with Friends has a built-in chat feature that lets players talk to each other, and that may well have saved a man's life. According to KCTV, a player in Missouri named Beth Legler was chatting with a fellow player from Australia named Georgie Fletcher who claimed ...

GymPact for iPhone pays you to hit the gym

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Jan 3rd, 2012)

If you need motivation to get to the gym when you find your desire to stick to your resolutions waning, GymPact is offering a financial incentive to actually get you to go. The free app works when you commit to go to the gym and then set a monetary amount for each day. You must go at least one ...

Daily Mac App: Muscle System Pro II

by Michael Grothaus (Nov 8th, 2011)

Back in March I raved about 3D 4 Medical's Muscle System Pro II iPad app. It's a photo-realistic 3D atlas of the human body that allows the user to navigate through layers of muscles with the touch of their finger. The app is so good it's found a foothold among must-have apps at medical school ...

iTriage 3.0 adds live wait times for acute care facilities, medicine information and more

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Aug 19th, 2011)

When TUAW last talked with the folks behind iTriage, it was shortly before World Health Day in 2010, and the app had just updated to version 2.0 with a version for Android. A little more than 16 months later, iTriage has hit version 3.0 with a plethora of changes and new features such ...

Cardiograph flatlines on the iPhone and iPad

by Chris Rawson (Aug 4th, 2011)

Cardiograph is a universal app that purports to measure your heart rate via the cameras built into the iPhone or iPad 2. The app has a very slick-looking user interface reminiscent of a real-world electrocardiogram, complete with authentic (and irritating) sound effects, including the ...

Jawbone Up wristband sensor: Design for your health

by Steven Sande (Jul 15th, 2011)

Jawbone is well-known for its stylish Bluetooth headsets, but the company's forthcoming Jawbone Up is designed for a completely different task -- tracking your activity, sleeping, and eating activities. Packaged in an attractive wristband that comes in a range of bright colors, the Up is ...

Withings Blood Pressure Monitor: An iOS-friendly way to track your BP

by Steven Sande (Jun 20th, 2011)

Withings is a company with an interesting mission -- making it possible to send health information directly from measuring devices to the internet, where the data can be shared with personal computer and mobile apps. The company has just started selling its new Blood Pressure Monitor ...

Stats of the Union brings American demographic data to the iPad

by Michael Grothaus (May 29th, 2011)

If you have an interest in American demographics and statistics, you need to check out the Stats of the Union iPad app. Statistics are only useful when you have a clear way of organizing and viewing the data. Without being able to do that, you can't glean any useful information from the ...

iMuscle is a must for exercise aficionados

by Michael Grothaus (May 8th, 2011)

I've raved about 3D 4 Medical's apps in the past. They are so well designed that I can't think of better apps to show off the power of the iPad. Apple even used one of 3D 4's apps in an iPad commercial. The company's latest app, the awkwardly titled iMuscle - (NOVA Series) - iPad edition, lives ...

Apple files patent application for Fitness Center App for iPhone

by Mike Schramm (Apr 28th, 2011)

[Headline and post revised to clarify that this is a patent application, not a patent award. Our apologies for the error. –Ed.] Patently Apple's got another USPTO-sponsored bulletin from the R&D Department in Cupertino, and this time it's for a brand new app designed to help you ...

Muscle Trigger Points app helps you locate sources of pain

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 28th, 2011)

Trigger points are taut bands of muscle that send pain to other areas of the body. Oftentimes people with trigger points might suffer pain in one area of the body, like the lower back, and not realize that the pain is actually originating on the other side of the body (the psoas, in this case). ...

Motion Doctor turns your iPad into a physical therapist

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 25th, 2011)

I've got a lot of friends who are doctors, physical therapists and trigger point therapists. One thing they all tell me is that patients usually follow and perform prescribed exercises flawlessly while seeing the PT, but as time goes on and the patients are expected to do their exercises at ...

Muscle System Pro II shows the great potential of iPad apps

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 25th, 2011)

Mark my words: Muscle System Pro II will one day appear in an iPad commercial. It's that good. This is one of those apps that show you just how powerful the iPad can be. Muscle System Pro II by 3D 4 Medical is an interactive learning tool that allows the user to completely explore the muscular ...

Not all doctors are created equal

by Michael Rose (Feb 17th, 2011)

We all know that a US shock tabloid is running with a story involving Steve Jobs' health and his possible ongoing treatment (no, we're not linking it). Plenty of news outlets have quoted chunks of this story verbatim, including the grim assessments of several physicians who base their comments and ...

BodyMedia introduces the Armband BW at CES, body monitoring for iPhone

by Mike Schramm (Jan 11th, 2011)

BodyMedia had quite a presence at CES last week, with one of their employees running around town and even jumping out of planes to show off the company's new product, the BodyMedia FIT Armband BW. I stopped by their booth to talk to company founder Ivo Stivoric about the product, and how it ...