
The NHS has released an NHS Direct app to go with its health advice phone service.
The app features an interactive symptom checker that allows people to work out if they need to see a doctor.
NHS Direct is available now on the Android Market, and the NHS says the iOS version will be available in June from the Apple App Store.
Transform Innovation, the NHSs digital strategy advisors, awarded the contract to create the app to development agency Mobikats. The aim was to help take pressure off other local NHS services by letting people self-assess their symptoms using clinically-proven online self-care advice.
“The importance of keeping the design of the app simple yet with all the functionality needed by NHS Direct was a key challenge for Mobikats,” says Philippe Homsy, a Mobikats director. “Users were likely to be stressed when they used it so we needed to ensure they could access the right information in the shortest time.”
Roger Donald, associate director of Multichannel, NHS Direct, says: “The NHS Direct app has been developed in response to the popularity of this new mobile channel and to the specific needs of the growing number of patients who prefer to access health advice online. Patients can access rapid and convenient health advice through the app with the reassurance that the information is from a trusted source. Our online health and symptom checkers are already extremely popular and we hope making them mobile we will benefit more people and contribute to helping take pressure off other local NHS services.”