At the end of August we released a new version of MyHealth in the Apple App Store. MyHealth is an (iPad only) application presenting your quantitative health and medical data on a visual timeline. Charts (graphs) present your data on a common timeline. This presentation makes it easy to see if there are any possible relationships between the tracked data items – as well as showing trends of the markers recorded. In simple terms, the charts represent a visual history of the measures of your health over time.
We are pleased that existing and new users can finally experience the improvements that we developed as a result of our own ideas — as well as those suggested by our users.
A Facelift
A more advanced presentation clarifies data usage. The charts have a new design with colours being used much more effectively than before. All charts are instantly responsive to view any chosen time period — with just a pinch or spread action on the screen. Magical!
We simplified the display of medications and other interventions. Now you can select which one of the medications (or supplements) you are taking is on the timeline. This is particularly useful when beginning a medication or changing a dosage to see if the desired effects are actually happening.
Goals & Target Ranges
If you choose to set a target level or target range for any monitored metric, the chart will immediately change from the default blue colour to green (reached your target or within your range). Red charts warn if your targets are not met.
Time Shift Demo Profile Data
We understand that there is nothing as boring as the blank page when you start recording data for your health and medical timeline. Sort of like reading the journal that you start tomorrow! To overcome this MyHealth comes preloaded with (mostly) real data from a test user. This means that you can use this demo profile to get a feel for how your own data will be presented over time.
This version includes an option to “time shift” the demo data. This simply changes the date of all of the timeline entries so that the last reading appears to have been entered yesterday.
The time shift option is offered during the upgrade process after downloading from the App Store.
Easier Access to Individual Data Points
Feedback told us that in addition to the interpretation of results over time, there are circumstances where easy access to the underlying data is needed. This release has completely reworked the engine which makes this possible. By tapping and holding on any point on a chart you will enter a “tooltip” display mode. In this mode, swiping left or right will change the focus of the tooltip to adjacent points. When a data point is displayed in this format you can also immediately edit the details (value, date or time).
More Flexible Treatment of Units of Measurement
Previously, the MyHealth App invited users to adopt metric or imperial units of measure.
Our users pointed out that, even though this worked most of the time, there were many situations where this did not suit all users. Additionally, we identified that there are some metrics for tracking which do not have just two possible units of measurement.
The new version now allows selection of the units of measurement on a chart by chart basis. If you are sharing your data with someone more used to another unit, you can instantly change the units to make it easier for them to interpret the details of the chart and data points.
New Target Ranges
Again based on user feedback we have enhanced the facility to record goals. Previously, goals were single dimension affairs – a goal to get above or below a single value. For example, to weigh less than 94 kilos.
This version adds goals which can be expressed as a range. For example, if you are monitoring your blood glucose levels (BGL) you might want to keep BGL within, say, 4.5 to 6%. This can now be done. Whenever your current or last reading is outside this personally set zone your BGL chart will change to a red display.
Data Backup
The data in your MyHealth App is yours and we do not have any access to that data. Nothing is uploaded from your iPad to our (or anyone else’s) servers. It is therefore sound practice to occasionally store a copy of your results to your dropbox account. If you don’t have one you can get a free personal account.
Because the underlying data storage methods have been upgraded with this release, the app will remind you that a backup is a good idea when it is opened for the first time after installing the new version.
Wrapping Up
There were some circumstances when MyHealth would unexpectedly shut down. If this did happen, there was never any data loss — the electrons just got too tired to continue!
Anyway, this release has changed the way that the main page charts move – existing users will notice the row of dots on the right hand margin which slides the charts up or down. Our testing shows that this change has reduced the stress on the electrons who are now far less likely to “throw in the towel”.
Oh, and one last thing – Blood Pressure data is now collected and presented in a single chart of Systolic and Diastolic readings, just like the rest of the world!
Conclusion
This release has been published by the same MyHealth team under new ownership elthi solutions. We are excited by the change and are looking forward to many more releases in the future, and to new applications to benefit anyone using data to manage health or medical conditions.
