The first thing we do these days when we have a symptom is ask our friends for their advice and if they have had a similar problem. The second thing we do is hit Google. There we can find a whole host of information, but it can get tough to narrow it down to what we really need to know. WebMD does all that for us.
The first time you sign into WebMD, it asks you to sign up with a free account. After doing so, it asks you to also assign a four-digit PIN, but states it’s not a necessity, and that it will just make it easier to sign in again. Keeping the app open and working on it, it never asked me to sign in again. And quitting the app and opening it also didn’t ask me to sign in again, so the four-digit PIN doesn’t seem much of a necessity. After I signed in, and when I returned to the app, I was greeted with the above homescreen, directing me to the information I was looking for.
Going to the symptom checker, the app asks me for profile information of my age and sex. This seems a little unnecessary since the same information was already in my sign-in information. Making full use of the touchscreen, it then directs you to pinch, zoom in, or spread out on the area of your body you are experiencing difficulty with.
The app then takes you through a series of questions about that problematic area. You can skip through them if you wish to get to general information, or answer all of the questions to make your symptom more direct.
You can select as many symptoms as you wish. The more you select will obviously narrow down your list of possible conditions considerably more. Highlighting a condition brings up information with clickable links to more information. Clicking the Save link in the upper right allows you to copy a link, open it in safari, or email it. You can also save the condition to your profile so that you can refer back to it later, and can also remove the info from your profile once it no longer becomes applicable.
You can also start with a condition to just come in and research. You can search through all the listed conditions, or can search through just the ones you have saved to your Conditions list in your profile.
Drugs can be researched in this app as well. The more common drugs are also listed in alphabetical order and can also be saved, emailed, or opened in Safari. Keeping the drugs you are taking saved in your profile can be very handy. The information listed includes how the drug is used, possible side effects, precautions, interactions with other drugs, and what to do in case of an overdose.
First Aid can also be researched in this app. Like the other sections, it can be researched alphabetically, or can be saved to your profile. You can either research for educational purposes or find out how to care for a situation when it’s needed immediately. Using your location, local physicians, hospitals, and pharmacies can be searched. You can either search for them specifically by name, or you can search the area for any that are available. For physicians, you can also search by speciality. The only thing missing here is an option to save to your profile. The WebMD app can be a very useful one to have on your mobile devices. It has two separate apps available, one for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and another for the iPad.
