New Healthline symptom checker app offers online alternative

New Healthline symptom checker app offers online alternative

15 October 2013

The thousands of people in the Auckland region who call Healthline every year now have another way to access expert health advice and information with the launch of the free Healthline symptom checker app.

The Healthline symptom checker is an easy to download and use app that provides expert health advice and information from Healthline, a trusted source of health advice.

People find their symptoms from a comprehensive list on the app – for example, ‘rash – widespread’ – or by using the ‘browse by body parts’ option, and the app then suggests a course of action. That could be to call an ambulance, see a doctor within 24 hours or advice on how to manage the condition at home, just as when people phone Healthline.

Healthline, the free telephone health advice service, is funded by the Ministry of Health and provided by Medibank Health Solutions.

New Zealand General Manager Andrea Pettett says the new symptom checker app complements the Healthline telephone advice service.

“Healthline received more than 26,200 calls from the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHB regions in the April to June 2013 quarter. The new symptom checker app gives people the choice of going online for health information and advice so they can make informed health decisions.”

Andrea Pettett says the Healthline symptom checker app has been tailored for New Zealand conditions, with emergency numbers, such as the National Poisons Centre and information on health organisations.

“Users can add their doctor’s details or the app can import these details from their iPhone contacts list. The app does not store any personal health information entered by users.”

The app is available to download free onto Apple iPhones or iPads via a link from the Healthline website or direct from the Apple App store, and is likely to be rolled out to other technology in the future.

“The use of similar symptom checker phone apps overseas is widespread and, in some cases, has overtaken calls to telephone health advice services.”

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