For someone who never went to medical school Dr Google seems to be an incredibly popular and sought after ‘specialist’. A significant number of people will turn to the internet for information and advice before seeking professional help, and this is a good idea in the right context. There are some fantastic resources out there, and so I thought it might be helpful to list a few of them, to improve the quality of the results our patients are getting when they go online, and to save time for those who get drawn into elaborate and complex searches featuring more and more worrying symptoms and diagnoses!
First off, a safe and reliable place to start for all medical queries;
Next up, for info on local services, how the NHS can help, conditions, and health costs;
And for travel advice
Lastly for mental health advice and support;
which is an award-winning online mental wellbeing service. It offers the first online pathway for mental health and wellbeing, placing people at the centre of their own care. It enables people to access well governed, safe therapeutic services through self-referral from the comfort of their own homes.
Apps;
The NHS has also realised the need for a reliable single source of credible and safe online resources and has recently launched its Health Apps Library, at last month’s NHS Healthcare Innovation Expo in London.
Here at SHS we are particularly interested in the ‘Patient Access’ App, as we already have the online facility allowing our patients to book appointments and re order repeat prescriptions via the internet, but it would be brilliant to have a phone app too, making it potentially even simpler. We will be looking into how to adopt this app, but it is something that the local health community may need to fund, so watch this space.
The Sound Doctor App; An Audio app which enables patients to listen to information about their long term conditions and therefore help them look after themselves more easily and get the best out of life.Leading doctors, nurses, patients and other relevant health professionals have been interviewed to provide a really comprehensive look at a number of long term conditions.All the information is presented in short chapters of between 3 and 5 minutes each with several interviewees in each chapter.
ActiveMe App; Developed by NHS experts in CFS/ME, activity record charts are widely used to help patients and
practitioners work together to develop a daily baseline of energy use before increasing it in regular steps
to enable you to achieve your goals.Fast, easy, portable and discreet, ActiveME can help you balance your activities.
Type 1 Diabetes (Alcohol guide) App; Having type 1 diabetes means that it is important to know how to keep safe when having alcohol. This guide aims to help you find out what to do to keep safe and how alcohol can affect your body.This App has been designed based on ideas and suggestions provided during the qualitative interviewing of young people with type 1 diabetes aged between 18 and 21. It has been developed in collaboration with the Poole Hospital Diabetes Centre in the UK for use by their patients.
PillManager App; helps you manage your medications, never forget them, and also helps with re ordering them too.
These are just a few to get you thinking.
See our website for loads more Useful Links
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/students-health/links/