What a Health App Can and Cannot Do

An app can help you remember, write down, store and report. It does not replace your clinic or your doctor's decision. Sam is one such app: you keep symptoms with a date in the symptom diary, and your symptom days and top symptoms come together in the monthly report, instead of staying lost in a paper note.

This text names five tasks an app can take over and their limits. After that come five questions you answer before you download. At the end, a short note on what Sam does of all this.

Five tasks an app can take over

First decide which task you want to hand over. Apps differ less in looks than in what they take over.

• Remembering: a signal for a dose or an appointment, instead of a note on the fridge. Your clinic decides what you take and when. The app only reminds you. In Sam, intake reminders exist in several programs.
• Writing down: symptoms, readings or seizures with a date and severity, at the moment instead of from memory in the evening. In Sam you record symptoms with a date, and in the programs also seizures and medication taken. Sleep and activity from Apple Health appear in the monthly report, and in some programs values sit beside your entries.
• Measuring with devices: usually not the app but a device measures, such as a cuff, a sensor or a watch. The app shows what arrives. Sam measures nothing itself; it reads what Apple Health stores. An Apple Watch does not measure blood pressure. How Apple Health and other apps work together is covered in Apple Health vs. third-party apps.
• Storing letters: doctor's letters, results and your medication list as a photo or PDF, sorted and reachable on the go. In Sam this belongs to your medical documents.
• Reporting: from your entries a course takes shape, with a time range and numbers, which you print or show on your phone. In Sam that is the doctor report as a PDF, one per program. Before the visit, a doctor appointment checklist for a chronic condition helps you gather what your clinic wants.

You do not need all five in one app. Often one task that fits your daily life is enough.

What an app cannot do

This applies to wellness apps, that is, apps without a medical purpose.

• It does not make a diagnosis. A recorded symptom does not explain where it comes from.
• It does not change a therapy. Your clinic decides medicines and dose.
• It does not replace an appointment. Even a good diary stays conversation material, not a finding.
• It only knows what you enter or what a connected device delivers. An empty day means no data, not that nothing happened.
• It only helps if you use it. Three entries a month rarely make a course.

The gain is modest: you arrive at the appointment with records instead of memory gaps. What that can change in the conversation is covered in what documenting really changes.

Disease management: you manage, the app records

The word sounds like a program. In daily life it is many small tasks: getting prescriptions, keeping appointments, noting symptoms, collecting questions, keeping letters. You do these. An app can take over the paperwork; it cannot decide.

Do not confuse this with a structured care programme. Some providers offer a structured programme for a chronic condition, run in practices that take part. An app is not such a programme, and there is usually no exact equivalent you can enrol in. If you want to know whether such care exists where you live, ask your clinic or provider, not an app store.

Medical device app or wellness app

A medical device app is regulated software. In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates software as a medical device when its intended purpose is medical. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does the same. The intended purpose decides, and under the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002 it follows from the data the manufacturer supplies, such as the labelling, the instructions and promotional material.

The FDA guidance on general wellness explains that software meant to maintain or encourage a healthy lifestyle, and not to diagnose, treat or prevent a condition, is not a medical device. A wellness app follows no medical purpose. It is not on a device register, and you do not get it on prescription. Whether an app counts as a medical device is decided by the purpose the maker states, not by how it looks. A wellness app is your own tool for recording. A medical device app supports a treatment you discuss with your clinic. More in wellness app vs. medical device.

Five questions before you download

Apps differ a lot in benefit and quality. Answer these five questions before you give an app your data.

1. Does it fit your condition, and does it ask for proof? Some apps are built for one condition, others for several. That matters if you have several conditions. A 2025 review in JAMA Network Open looked at digital health tools for a hypothetical patient with five chronic conditions. Of the tools it found, fewer than 5 percent were built for more than one condition. Some programs ask at the start whether a doctor has confirmed the condition. Without a diagnosis, an app with a general symptom diary fits better. Symptoms without a diagnosis you first discuss with your clinic.
2. Does it record, or does it interpret? Some apps only show your entries. Others rate them with scores, traffic light colours or hints. Both can be useful. You should know what you get and who stands behind an interpretation. Read the purpose the maker states. If it makes medical claims, ask about regulation.
3. Can you bring something to the appointment? A PDF, a printout or a view on your phone. Test this with three invented entries before you get used to the app. Is the time range at the top? Do the numbers carry a time window? Ask your clinic what it wants to see. Your own records and the clinic record are not the same thing.
4. What does it cost? Look at the store entry. What does a paid version unlock, and what does the version you are considering limit: entries, documents, programs, export? A trial month is not a permanent one free of charge. Also check what happens to your entries if you stop paying. For medicines, a medication list template or app may be all you need.
5. Who is behind it, and what does the privacy policy say? Find the provider and check that it is reachable. Check whether it is a wellness app or a medical device app, as above. Read the privacy policy before you enter health data. In the UK and EU, the GDPR requires the provider to state who is responsible, what the data is used for, how long it is kept and what rights you have. If something is missing, ask.

Here is an invented example. You have had high blood pressure for two years and want to show your readings at the review. You download an app, enter three invented values and look for the export. After five minutes you know whether the app fits that purpose.

Keep entries, documents and report together in Sam

You arrive at the appointment with a course and a report, instead of telling it from memory.

• You record symptoms with a date in the symptom diary; in the programs you also record seizures and medication taken. Apple Health sleep and activity appear in the monthly report. Instead of a notes app and loose paper, everything sits in one place.
• You store doctor's letters and results as a photo or PDF among your medical documents, instead of hunting in screenshots.
• Each program makes a doctor report as a PDF you print or show on your phone. Programs exist for several conditions; without a doctor's diagnosis, the symptom diary stays.

Sam has no program for every condition, and it is not a medical device. You bring the report yourself; your clinic decides what it wants.

Try Sam for free

Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. The app does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition or health state. Always consult qualified professionals for medical decisions.

Related reading

• Your own health record vs. a health app
• Wellness app or medical device?
• Symptom diary: template or app
• What documenting really changes at the doctor

Sources

Updated: October 2026

• NICE: Behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions (NG183)
• GOV.UK: Criteria for health app assessment
• GOV.UK: Health app developers: the assessment process
• US FDA: General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices
• Phi NTT, et al.: Cumulative Burden of Digital Health Technologies for Patients With Multimorbidity: A Systematic Review. JAMA Network Open 2025;8(4):e257288
• UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002, regulation 2: definition of "intended purpose"
• UK MHRA: Medical devices: software applications (apps)