Smartphones can help with tips on treatment photolibrary.com

MOBILES get a bad rap in the health press. If they’re not frying our ears with radiation, they’re crippling the mitts of ­Britain’s text-happy youth.

But thanks to a hearing aid that went on sale last week, deaf people can control their hearing through a setting on their mobile phones. The S Series, developed by Starkey Laboratories, is aimed at young deaf people who find it embarrassing to adjust their aid by hand.

And the health benefits of mobile phones don’t stop there. Most phone websites offer health applications, from BMI charts to pedometers. BlackBerry has 35 health applications, ­including an ­alcohol calculator which tots up the booze in your bloodstream. You can even strap a phone to your thigh to measure how hard you cycle.

However, Dr Peter Weller, senior lecturer in medical ­informatics at City University, offers a word of caution.

“Anyone can design one of these applications, so make sure it’s been medically ­verified,” he said. “If the calculation is wrong, you could be in trouble. We’re just waiting for the first person to be caught by police drink-driving only to protest that his mobile said it was OK to drive.”

Many telecoms companies rely on customer feedback to check the reliability of an ­application, so if it has a low rating, best ignore it. Otherwise, if you don’t trust what you’ve downloaded, seek professional advice.

Elsewhere, Apple has developed an application for diabetics available on the iPhone 3GS, launched this week. The phone connects with a blood/glucose reader to give advice on how much insulin a patient should take.

With another programme, cancer patients can record their chemotherapy side ­effects. If the symptoms are severe, a nurse is alerted through a pager. Cardio patients can also punch in their heart rate, which signals any abnormality to a doctor.

“The idea of managing your health at a distance is certainly growing with the development of increasingly powerful smartphones,” said Weller. “They allow ­patients who want to live a normal life to take ­control of their ­treatment without heavy equipment or big instruments.”

But Prof Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The disadvantage is the amount of unregulated ­information – we need to ensure its quality.

“However, technology won’t replace face-to-face consultations. It will improve patient care.”

So mobiles do have extra-curricular health uses. Let’s just hope they’re not the brain-melting death stones that some would have us believe.