Health apps replacing doctors - 18th October 2021

The use of health apps has been increasing in Sweden in the last 18 months.

Ewa-Lena Rasumusson lives in Stockholm. She uses a Swedish app called Joint Academy, which helps with joint pain. It has made her much more active during lockdown.

The app sends a daily reminder to do a series of exercises, which last five minutes. Video demonstrations show correct positions and personalised training is given. There is also an online chat function with a physiotherapist, and video calls too.

"I can really feel the difference," Ms Rasmusson reports, who suffers from knee pain. In March 2020, she could only do a few exercises, but now she can do far more.

Joint Academy was started in 2014. It was designed by Leif Dahlberg, a university professor specialising in this field, and his son Jakob Dahlberg.

The app's success is part of a big growth in digital healthcare. The Swedish Internet Foundation says that in Sweden, a fifth of the population made use of an app in autumn 2020 and interestingly, one tenth of users were retired.

Not everyone is so excited. Sofia Rydgren Stale is chairperson of the Swedish Medical Association and she warns that only certain care can be dealt with by digital apps.

But Jakob Dahlberg says research shows that his app is actually more helpful than traditional care. "It works," he says. "The data speaks the truth."