CRI听力:Doctors Prescribe Smartphone Apps to Patients

Christine Cartlidge suffers from a serious lung disease and needs constant care and monitoring from her doctor.

She's using an app on her phone that is linked to her doctor's surgery that helps her track her condition.

Every day the app prompts Christine to take her blood pressure, pulse and temperature and text the results to her doctor.

At the first sign of any infection, a nurse would visit her home - early intervention that could prevent a rapid deterioration in her health. Christine says using smartphone apps to track her illness is extremely convenient.

"It makes me that I've got my own medical practitioner in my pocket, because the community matrons can assign antibiotics, which saves trips to the doctors to get them."

More than 500 apps were nominated as part of a competition run by the UK's National Health Service.

The most useful and popular have now been included on a shortlist that doctors will be encouraged to recommend to patients.

Free to download or at a very low cost, the apps allow patients to track diseases, stay in touch with their doctor, also known as a General Practitioner or GP, and even give them access to their medical records.

App creator, Phil O'Connell says mass use of the apps will create be a mutually beneficial situation for all involved.

"It frees patients up, so patients don't have to sit around waiting for (inaudible) to visit them or have to spend half the day exhausting themselves going to a GP surgery to have their readings done. This way it's convenient for the patient and everyone and the by-product is yes, it should save money for the NHS."

Apps are also being designed for doctors, one of which aims to turns a smartphone into a stethoscope. The real medical kit may cost USD 3,000, whereas the app costs $ USD 1.00.

It's simple to use and takes just a few minutes to download. It has a built in microphone enabling it to record the rate of someone's heartbeat.

The Patients Association in the U.K. has warned that elderly people could become excluded from healthcare in the future if they struggle to get to grips with using smartphones.

But for patients like Christine, the app is giving her the opportunity to remain in the comfort of her own home while being watched over by medical experts.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.