New App Helps Lupus Patients Track Their Care

The Lupus Foundation has released a new free mobile app for lupus patients, to mixed reviews The "Lupus Companion" was developed to help patients keep track of their medications, appointments, and symptoms.

Developed as part of the Lupus Initiative, an educational program sponsored by the American College of Rheumatology, the app includes a disease-activity instrument (the Systemic Lupus Activity Questionnaire or SLAQ) intended to be shared with the user's doctor every 3 months.

Your patients may be waiting for a few fairly basic tweaks before using it, however, if they read the reviews available on the ITunes App Store. Reviewers call for

• a symptom checklist, rather than the need to key in symptoms manually;
• the ability to upload pictures of rashes,
• options to sync the calendar and address book with the appointment area.

"Good start," agreed two patient critics.