HealthTap launches 'AppRx' so you can get app recommendations from real doctors

Health Q&A startup HealthTap has added a new feature to its popular mobile apps called AppRx that lets doctors recommend high-quality medical mobile apps to everyday users.

HealthTap caught our eye recently when it raised $24 million in its second round of funding and added former Square COO Keith Rabois to its board. The service is taking a big step toward providing all kinds of medical advice and info from its popular applications, which attract more than 8 million unique visitors each month. Eventually HealthTap even wants to facilitate digital doctor appointments.

As it gets ready to do that, HealthTap is expanding to add more features and find more ways to get doctors interacting with users. Enter AppRx. This feature will let HealthTap’s network of more than 40,000 U.S.-licensed doctors recommend mobile apps that might help you.

You might wonder if that’s really necessary because you can already search and find apps that might help you. But there are more than 40,000 health and wellness mobile apps available in the iOS and Android app stores and there are a lot of crummy apps out there. For example, there are more than 600 diabetes apps and more than 200 children’s health apps. Having legit doctors tell you which apps you should download and use makes a lot more sense than trying all those out.

“AppRx is one of the most important releases in the mobile health revolution,” HealthTap CEO Ron Gutman told VentureBeat via email. “We manage our health and well-being around the clock, and when we need a way to help us engage in our well being … apps are the best engagement solution to complement any health and wellness plan. We see a huge potential in engaging doctors to help people choose the best health and wellness apps for them and integrate mobile apps into the process of providing real reliable and engaging care.”

Top image via HealthTap