Summary

Health Storylines is a free health management app that allows users to track and manage their health. It offers over 60+ health tools to track and manage such as medication reminders, symptom and mood trackers, weight and blood pressure trackers, a journal, and much more.

Short How To

Users must first create an account after downloading the app. They will need a valid email address and will create a password. They will then be prompted to create their profile which will include their name, gender, birth year (can’t select years prior to 2012), role (e.g. patient, caregiver, parent/guardian, spouse, partner, friend, physician, nurse) and avatar. After creating their profile, users can add additional health information such as their health condition(s) by typing it in and selecting it from their extensive list and health organization if they are part of a patient community. Lastly, users are encouraged to create a circle of support by inviting members to join. All they need to invite someone is the individual’s email and relationship to them.

Health Storylines will generate and add suggested health tools to your home screen after completing the steps above. They can be customized or interacted with by tapping on them in the home screen under “My Health Tools”. To add a medication reminder, make sure that the medication tracker tool is under your health tools. Users can tap on it and then search for their medication on a medication database, add their dose (have to type in, no preset selection), unit for dose and amount usually taken (0.5-3, other, cannot remember), frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, days interval, PRN) and how many times a day (1-6) it is taken. They can then set customizable reminders and add extra notes if needed. Users can add or delete health tools from their home screen by scrolling all the way down and selecting their desired option.

Reviewer Experience

Health Storylines is a great app to manage all your health information, but, it is over-saturated with health tools that make managing your health more complicated than it should be. Our reviewer loved the idea of an all-in-one for necessary health tools but felt that the app was clunky and not user-friendly. She was using Health Storylines to track her medication and appointments amongst other things. The medication reminder tool was helpful but using it was not intuitive. After receiving a reminder, she had to open the app on her phone, find the correct medication time in her health tools, tap on it, and then mark it as missed, taken, or delay the reminder. Unfortunately, the app did not prompt this process and made managing her medication adherence become more of a chore than it already was. She did, however, like the feature where she can manually edit exactly when she took her medication in cases when she had to take it earlier than the scheduled time. This allowed her to look back at that information so that she could know when her next dose needed to be taken and edit the reminder for it. Another struggle was the appointment calendar, a feature she was really excited about. While inputting her appointment information was quick and easy, finding it was very time-consuming as there were not clear instructions. After some time going through the app, she found that the appointments could be found in the Learn screen and that it just shows a line with the dates for the week and if there is an appointment scheduled, there will be a green dot that can be tapped to view information on it.

While the app can be confusing and overwhelming to some users, it can also be a great tool for a caregiver or individual with multiple health conditions that has the time, patience, and tech savviness. The easiest way to use this app, in the reviewers’ experience, is to delete all the pre-loaded health tools that Health Storylines adds and start from scratch. Adding health tools is quick and easy as all tools are categorized within the following topics; top tools, health tracking, food nutrition, physical health, mental health, ADD/ADHD, Asthma, Alzheimer’s, Cancer, COPD, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Hepatitis C, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ulcerative Colitis, Organizations and Reminders, New, Spinal Cord Injury, Total Parenteral Nutrition, NET Cancer, Heart Health, Quit Smoking, How was My Day, Women’s Health, Co-occurring/Underlying Health Issues, Daily Routine, Early Intervention, Recommended, and Strategies. Clicking on a tool will bring up a preview with images of what the tool looks like and a description. Some favorites are: Positive Thoughts Diary which helps users reframe their negative thoughts using CBT techniques, Guided Meditation which provides a video and a scale of how you feel after watching the video, Questions to Ask which provides a space to type questions you have for the doctor and notes during the doctor visit, Daily Moods, Medication Tracker, Symptom Tracker, Appointment Calendar, Healthy Doses in which users can tap on a topic and receive an inspirational quote for that topic, Health Routine Builder which allows you to build reliable routine by planning & tracking your goals, Daily Asthma Control which give asks you how many times your inhaler was used today, triggers, and notes , and lastly the Journal tool.

Our reviewer also like the caregiver aspect this app builds within the Community tab. For each tool, the user can set visibility of who can view those details (friends, parents, caregivers, etc.). When caregivers are invited to the individuals support circle, they create an account, select their role (e.g. patient, caregiver, parent/guardian, spouse, partner, friend, physician, nurse) and can then view the individuals Storyline in the Community screen and even message them. The Storyline is a summary of the users’ health tool input and caregivers can view their storyline for the next 7 days, 2 weeks, or 1 month. Keep in mind that caregivers have to make sure to select the same role as what the user set them up with otherwise they might not be able to view everything based on users support circle visibility. This is a great feature that involves everyone and keeps caregivers up to date on the individuals’ health data.

Benefits

Health Storylines is a beneficial app for individuals who want an all-in-one health management app. Individuals with multiple health conditions would enjoy the many different health tools to track conditions such as diabetes, heart health, ADHD, cancer, epilepsy, and mental health. Users who choose to use this app will need sufficient time to go through all the health tools and learn how to use them. This app would greatly interest individuals who are looking to build their circle of support while still having control over who views what information. Since the app is highly customizable on what tools can be viewed by who, this is perfect for those who want independence but may need additional support or accountability. Additionally, for individuals who have family members or caregivers who prefer another language, this app makes it easy to switch between languages so that the user can have their app and health tools in English and their caregiver can view everything in their app in another language.

Additional Comments

The app would greatly benefit from a detailed instructional video or pdf guide to walk users through how to use the app and view their information.

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