If you want to monitor your heart health between doctor visits, consider using a mobile app. Whether you want to monitor your heart rate or blood pressure, several apps, many of them free, will give you accurate results right at home.
But remember: These apps are meant to provide you with information that you can share with your doctor to inform health decisions and not to replace visits to your doctor.
Table of contents:
- Track your heart rate
- Monitor your heart rate during exercise
- Learn your risk for arrhythmia
- Track your blood pressure
- Monitor your all-over heart health
- Improve your heart health
- Help others experiencing cardiac arrest
- Seeing a doctor for heart and vascular health
Track your heart rate
The app: Instant Heart Rate+ HR Monitor
What it does: You can check your heart rate within 10 seconds by placing the tip of your finger on the camera lens of your phone. Then, save your results and add notes to give your entry context, adding when you took your heart rate and what you were doing right before. The app can automatically create charts that track your heart rate over time and across various situations (rest, exercise, time of day). Instant Heart Rate+ also offers a StandUp test to evaluate your fatigue and fitness levels.
How much it costs:
iPhone: $1.99
Android: free
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Monitor your heart rate during exercise
The app: Cardiio
What it does: You can monitor your heart rate while you exercise by placing your finger on the back camera lens. The app provides insight into how your heart rate correlates to your fitness activity and endurance level. You can even save your results directly in your Apple Health app.
How much it costs: Free
Supported devices: iPhone
Learn your risk for arrhythmia
The app: Cardiac diagnosis
What it does: This app lets you know if you’re experiencing an irregular heartbeat and should seek medical care for possible arrhythmia. By placing your finger on the lens of the camera on your phone, the app can tell if your heart is beating too quickly (tachycardia), too slowly (bradycardia) or irregularly (arrhythmia). If the app reveals one of these conditions, you should go to a doctor for an electrocardiogram test to learn more.
How much it costs: Free
Supported devices: Android
The app: Kardia
What it does: Kardia empowers you to take a medical-grade EKG from home, and within just 30 seconds, it can detect common arrythmias. You can even share your EKG recording remotely with your doctor or with a cardiologist who partners with Kardia. In addition, the app can be used to track blood pressure. All of this information comes together in a helpful monthly report detailing your heart health.
How much it costs: Free, but requires related equipment, such as KardiaMobile, KardiaMobile 6L or KardiaBand hardware
Supported devices: Android, iPhone
Track your blood pressure
The app: Smart BP
What it does: Keep track of your blood pressure, pulse and weight through this app, which will automatically calculate your pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure. If you have an Apple device and the related medical equipment, you may be able to import information directly from a smart blood pressure monitor. If you don’t, you can still enter your information manually. But this app is about more than just numbers; you can also enter related information about the situation surrounding those numbers (time of day, after a certain activity or even which arm you used to measure your blood pressure). You can search for results by those details, making it easier to spot trends. Data from the app can be easily shared with others, such as a doctor or family member, through text or email messages.
How much it costs: Free
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Monitor your all-over heart health
The app: Qardio heart health
What it does: This app allows you to monitor your blood pressure, heart rate, weight and body composition for a holistic view of your cardiac health. Pair the app with Qardio devices, such as the QardioArm blood pressure monitor or the QardioBase 2 body composition scale. Your results will appear in user-friendly graphics, and you can easily share your data with your doctor or relatives.
How much it costs: Free (additional equipment required for a fee)
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Improve your heart health
The app: CardioVisual
What it does: Created by cardiologists, CardioVisual offers a trove of content that explains heart and vascular health. More than 400 videos, selected and created by healthcare providers, make it easy to understand what steps you need to take to prevent heart and vascular disease and to understand treatments. Videos are available in both English and Spanish. Instead of searching online for answers to heart health, this app connects you with information directly from clinicians.
How much it costs: Free
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Help others in cardiac arrest
The app: PulsePoint Respond
What it does: If you’re certified in CPR, you can use this app to learn if someone near you is experiencing cardiac arrest and needs assistance. This app connects with 911 services, and it can notify you of emergencies close to your location, including CPR-needed incidents. Then, you can notify first responders that you’re on your way to help.
How much it costs: Free
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Seeing a doctor for heart and vascular health
As we mentioned, these apps are not a substitute for seeking care from medical providers. They can, however, become powerful tools in maintaining your heart health. By sharing data from these apps with your doctor, you’ll have more information gathered between visits to inform your treatment plan.
AnMed Health’s Heart and Vascular Care centers in Anderson and Clemson, S.C. is a distinguished center of heart care, earning the Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. To make an appointment with a specialist, please call 864.512.1000.