Healthcare apps offer patients an active role

If you have young children, you've most likely endured caring for an ear infection or two. Or perhaps you've experienced a mysterious rash. Those situations generally mean a trip to the doctor's office and time away from your job, if you work outside the home. But what if you could snap a photo of your rash, or your child's ear canal, and send it to your doctor? That's the idea behind a new breed of apps and devices that increasingly put medical tools in the hands of consumers. CellScope Oto, for instance, combines an app with an attachment that lets you turn your iPhone into an otoscope — the tool physicians often use to examine the inside of your ear.