iPhone App Review: Capzule PHR

Because I am almost never without my iPhone, I appreciate getting pitches for reviews for apps for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (Side note: Anyone else visibly cringe to hear it referred to as an iTouch or am I just persnickety? Don’t answer that unless you agree with me!).

Some of the apps I’ve been exposed to this way, I may not have ever stumbled across other wise (Case in point: All of Oceanhouse Media’s Dr. Seuss story apps, which my daughters LOVE – including their latest, “Yertle the Turtle“).

Because I’m the keeper of all knowledge in my family when it comes to doctor’s appointments and medical whosy-whatsits in my family, I was intrigued by what I read about Capzule PHR, your Personal Health Record. This app allows you to store health records for yourself (and up to 30 family members), share information between i-devices, and connect and edit from PC.

I received the app free to review, and had a chance to tinker with the functionality and ask the creators a few questions. The UI is simple, easy to understand, and fairly painless to navigate. It’s NOT a tough app to use. It’s clean, it’s nice to look at – and this is key – because a confusing app, particularly one that is supposed to be helpful gets deleted from my phone. PRONTO.

There are a few negatives to this app – one being that you cannot share with NON i-devices (meaning that if you’re rocking your iPad and your spouse is completely bonded with a Droid – no can do). In my family, this means that I would be (as I am already) the keeper of the info. You can, however, email this data in plain text or html format.

I would also have liked to see a pop-up or push notification style appointment reminder. There’s currently a tab that allows you to see upcoming information – without being able to synch to your primary calendar or receive notifications, you would want to be sure to check back with the Capzule PHR app periodically to make sure you don’t miss an appointment.

BUT. Weighing in on the plus side: There’s a password option, which I think is a phenomenal idea — and a smart bet to use when we’re talking about your medical information. Since we’re talking safety – I’d also caution that when you’re emailing your medical information/chart information, you would want to use caution as well – making sure your internet connection is secure (Secured home connection = good. Emailing your medical chart from unsecured wifi at your local coffee shop = not so good). Use caution as you would any other thing – you wouldn’t do your banking in Starbucks… You probably shouldn’t monkey with this there either.

I can see that this app would be useful if you had a chronic condition requiring frequent appointments or you needed to track data (blood pressure, glucose, and the like) on a frequent basis. If you are using a variety of apps to track different metrics for your health, it may be easier to combine them into the use of one app.

For my family, we tend to only go to the doc as needed and (if we’re lucky) just for yearly checkups, I don’t know that I’ll get as much use from this. Particularly since I have a difficult time enough remembering to update my calendar – I don’t know if I can remember to update two of them, knowing that the Capzule won’t remind me of upcoming appointments.

The app is $4.99 from the iTunes store – but there’s a free version that you may want to tinker with before investing. I’d definitely give the free version a whirl and decide if upgrading to the full version is the right choice for you.

***

I received this app free for review, but as always, the opinions are my own.