Feeling unwell at the office? Perhaps it's a good time to consult the Medscape application on your mobile phone to pin down the symptoms. Having lunch with colleagues at a restaurant, but watching what you eat? Now you can download health applications that will navigate the caloric content of restaurant menus, from McDonald's to Pizza Hut. If you decide to cheat and eat the thick-crust pizza, you could offset the guilt by downloading an application to see just how much exercise you'll need to burn off those calories and learn to resist temptation next time.
So-called mHealth applications include phone apps to monitor vital signs, learn about prescription medicines or manage chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. Lifestyle and wellness apps include smoking-cessation programmes, weight-loss management tools and fitness guidance.
Yet many health-care specialists say these apps are gimmicky or unreliable, while consumers champion them as essential tools for motivation and success.
On September 1, Apple reported that 6.5 billion apps had been downloaded from the 250,000 available on the iTunes store. Apps for other devices, such as BlackBerry or Android, number between 35,000 and 40,000.
It's well known that applications for entertainment, such as games or social networking, are a bit hit with consumers, but the health-care segment for apps appears to be growing - by how much, the experts still aren't sure.
One problem surrounds the definition of mHealth. It is a broad term encompassing serious diagnostic or imaging tools for professionals to programs and lifestyle apps for regular consumers. It is a fluid, pioneering industry that is hard to pin down.