The app allows international travelers to learn about health alerts in their destinations, take precautions before departing and better address illnesses and medical conditions while traveling.
"International travelers are frequently unaware or unprepared for common illnesses encountered during foreign travels, especially to developing countries,” said Dr. Rizwan Sohail, a consultant in travel and tropical medicine at Mayo Clinic, and chief medical officer of Travel Health and Wellness. “Travelers often end up spending valuable business or vacation time in hotel rooms due to illness, are forced to seek medical help in foreign countries, or return home with serious illnesses such as measles, typhoid, malaria, dengue or tuberculosis. My Travel Health provides specific and easy-to-follow recommendations to prevent or deal with travel-related illnesses.”
My Travel Health details health concerns and alerts for 200 international travel destinations and recommended vaccines for each destination from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Links to each destination’s embassy, for local health information and assistance, are also provided. Once users save their destinations to the “My Trip” section of the app, it provides a pre-populated but modifiable packing and to-do list before travel. The app’s “Health” section provides travel health content licensed from the Mayo Clinic, including information and tips for common travel-related illnesses such as diarrhea, malaria, respiratory infections, blood clots, heat exhaustion, motion sickness and jet lag. The app’s “Fitness” section lists exercises that can be performed while traveling and recommendations on safe travel for pregnant women and those with serious medical illnesses.
Additionally, the “My Stuff” section of My Travel Health allows users to save pictures of their passport, visa, prescriptions, medications, immunization records, travel insurance and other vital documents. All information is stored solely on the traveler’s iPhone or iPad, making it available when needed and eliminating cloud-based document storage risks.
“As travel-related illnesses and medical conditions become increasingly common and concerning, My Travel Health will enable millions of travelers to plan a safer trip,” said Rashid Fehmi, CEO of Travel Health and Wellness. “While there are several health and travel apps, none address the health needs of the travelling public as well as My Travel Health.”
My Travel Health is available for $2.99 on the Apple App Store; to download it, go to Apple.com/iTunes and search for My Travel Health, or click here.