Like using apps to help manage your mental health, your phone can be a great resource for helping to manage your chronic illness. We've rounded up our favourite apps to help.
iOS, Google Play, Free
Medisafe is a free medication reminder app. It'll alert you which medication to take when, and you can even send alerts to a friend or family member as well to help keep you on track. The app will also remind you when to refill medications, to make ensuring that you have what you need easier.
iOS, Google Play, Free
Flaredown is one of the most popular apps for chronic illness management, and it's for good reason. The app allows you to track multiple conditions and tracks your symptoms in relation to treatments and triggers, so you can determine if a treatment is effective or not and what might be causing a flare. Flaredown also has a community section to connect with others for support.
iOS, Google Play, Amazon, $2.99
Though it's got "Fibro" in its name, Fibromapp is a helpful app for those dealing with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or chronic pain. It allows you to keep track of your pain, including severity, location, and type of pain, as well as mood, fatigue, and other symptoms. This information can be used to quickly create graphs and charts, which can be helpful to both you and your doctors.
iOS, Google Play, Free
Carezone was designed as an app to help managed family health, but it's also especially useful for dealing with chronic illness. Medications can be easily scanned and put into the app, and you can also photograph important documents like driver's licences so you have the information with you whenever you need it. There's also a calendar to keep track of doctor's appointments and prescription refills, as well as notes, a journal, to-do lists, and important contacts like doctors and pharmacies. What really makes this app unique is the ability to share all this information securely with those you choose, so you can share information with those helping with your care.
IOS, Google Play, Windows, Free
Cozi is a family organizer, but it's also a great tool to help stay on top of things when you're dealing with fatigue or brain fog. It lets you see everyone's appointments and activities, and allows easy sharing and updating of grocery store lists, plus you can easily input recipes to help generate a grocery list.
Google Play, Amazon, Free
ColorNote is a notekeeping app that makes keeping track of things easier. Because it's colour-coded, you can easily find what you're looking for. You can also add notes to the calendar to be reminded of a deadline or appointment.
iOS, Google Play, Web, Free
MyFibroTeam is a community support site for those dealing with fibromyalgia. It lets you ask and answer questions, share your daily ups and downs, and give and receive supportive comments.
iOS, Google Play, Free
Track and React is a free app put out by the Arthritis Foundation. It allows you to input your daily activities and symptoms, to help you determine triggers or see progress over time, which can be helpful when determining how well a treatment or self-management is working.
iOS, Google Play, $2.99
mySymptoms is a symptom tracking app, that really shines in it's ability to track food, to help find if your diet is contributing to your symptoms. You can easily view trends and analyze to see what food is most likely contributing to your symptoms.
iOS, Google Play, Free
Since sleep can be such a difficult thing when dealing with chronic illness, SleepBot is a great app. Open the app and place your phone next to you, and the app will track motion and sound throughout the night to help you better understand your sleep quality. You can also set a smart alarm which uses the tracking to wake you up during your lightest stage of sleep within a half-hour window, so you feel less drowsy when you wake up.