Doctors tap MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers as top health apps

HealthTap, which offers a mobile telemedecine and health information service, surveyed some 65,000 doctors in its network to find out which apps they were recommending to patients.

HealthTap provided doctors with access to a special app review dashboard where they could find, download, try, and review all health and medical apps. Doctors were then provided with criteria to assess the apps, such as medical accuracy, validity and soundness, effectiveness, and ease of use. The apps weren’t reviewed for their ease-of-use or design as much as they were for their usefulness to the doctor in helping the user stay healthy.

“Well-educated and certified doctors are the best source for understanding the effectiveness and soundness of health apps,” the survey report reads. “While consumers can offer each other important feedback on app usability, design, and personal efficacy, only trusted doctors can provide authoritative feedback on their medical validity.”

The report lists the winning apps for both Android and iOS, as well as the top apps in 30 specific health categories, ranging from heart health, to weight loss, to pregnancy.

The winners, by OS:

iOS:

1. MyFitnessPal

2. Weight Watchers

3. Lose It!

4. White Noise Lite

5. First Aid (American Red Cross)

Android: 

1. Weight Watchers

2. White Noise Lite

3. Lose It!

4. First Aid (American Red Cross)

5. Runkeeper

You can download the full rankings here.

Within the 30 app categories, healthy eating, heart health, and children’s health apps dominate the overall top 100 list of both Android and iOS apps combined.

For Children’s Health, the top apps were My Baby Today by BabyCenter (for Android) and KidsDoc from the American Academy of Pediatrics (for iOS).

Apps by the CDC and American Red Cross are highly ranked, and appear in the top 10 in both the overall top apps list, and within several app categories.

Fooducate was rated the top Android app for healthy eating. The top Android app in the Pregnancy and Fertility category was BabyBump Pregnancy.

In iOS apps, Stroke Riskometer was rated the best Medical Conditions app, while Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock took top marks among sleep apps.

Health is the fastest growing of all app categories, and the number of health and fitness apps has more than doubled over the last 2 years. The Apple App Store and Google Play each feature more than 100,000 health apps.