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Gout Central app

An app for people with gout who want to learn more about the condition and understand how to control your symptoms.
Currently there are no gout apps that Healthify strongly recommends. A review evaluating gout apps identified the following shortfalls of gout apps currently available in app stores. Read more about gout apps.

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Gout Central app	By National Kidney Foundation
	Features Reminders. Symptom tracking. Education and information.
Clinical review	Read a clinical review, including safety concerns, below.
Security and privacy	Does the app: Collect medical information? Yes Require a login? No Have password protection? No Have a privacy policy? Yes Require internet access to use? No Read more about safety and security when using apps. Brochures: Tips to improve your privacy and security [PDF, 65 KB] Healthify He Puna Waiora, NZ Staying safe online(external link) Netsafe, NZ
Cost	Free
How to get the app	(external link) (external link)

This app provides you with information about gout, such as the causes, gout flare triggers, treatment options, lifestyle tips for preventing gout flares and how to protect your kidneys. The app also has tools to track various measures such as serum uric acid and gout flares, and has logs to document your medications, supplements and questions for your healthcare provider.

However, the app is not able to use mmol/L as the uric acid units, and some of the trackers and features are incomplete. For a more detailed description of the app, see iTunes(external link) and, for a detailed review, see reviews below.

PROS	CONS
✔ Medicine tracker (but see cons). ✔ Weight, GFR, ACR, blood pressure, and flare trackers with graphing (but see cons). ✔ Medicine reminders (but see cons).	✘ At the time of review, the app hadn’t been updated for 2.5 years. ✘ The uric acid units are in mg/dl. In New Zealand we use mmol/L. ✘ Many of the tools are incomplete, eg: o When entering variables such as weight, blood pressure, GFR and ACR, you can only enter the results for the current day. o In the medicine tracker, you can’t save medicines but have to manually enter them each time. o The medicine alert section only allows for 2 medicines. o The gout tracker doesn’t allow you to save custom fields for symptoms, triggers and treatments. t also uses a non-standard 0–-5 pain rating score rather than the standard 0–10. ✘ The doctor appointment calendar doesn’t integrate with your phone’s calendar. ✘ The external resources are all North American. ✘ The information section needs editing and reviewing. It has too much information on some topics such as kidney disease, uric acid metabolism and uncommonly used drugs. Meanwhile there is too little information about some important topics like how allopurinol is titrated and footwear. There are also no images or videos. ✘ No calendar for allopurinol titration. ✘ No gout flare action plan.

PROS

CONS

✔ Medicine tracker (but see cons).

✔ Weight, GFR, ACR, blood pressure, and flare trackers with graphing (but see cons).

✔ Medicine reminders (but see cons).

✘ At the time of review, the app hadn’t been updated for 2.5 years.

✘ The uric acid units are in mg/dl. In New Zealand we use mmol/L.

✘ Many of the tools are incomplete, eg:
o When entering variables such as weight, blood pressure, GFR and ACR, you can only enter the results for the current day.
o In the medicine tracker, you can’t save medicines but have to manually enter them each time.
o The medicine alert section only allows for 2 medicines.
o The gout tracker doesn’t allow you to save custom fields for symptoms, triggers and treatments. t also uses a non-standard 0–-5 pain rating score rather than the standard 0–10.

✘ The doctor appointment calendar doesn’t integrate with your phone’s calendar.

✘ The external resources are all North American.

✘ The information section needs editing and reviewing. It has too much information on some topics such as kidney disease, uric acid metabolism and uncommonly used drugs. Meanwhile there is too little information about some important topics like how allopurinol is titrated and footwear. There are also no images or videos.

✘ No calendar for allopurinol titration.

✘ No gout flare action plan.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Jeremy Steinberg, GP, FRNZCGP
Date of review: June 2020
Platform: Android
Version: 1.3
Comments: Users should give this app a miss mainly due to the inability to use mmol/L as the uric acid units, and the incomplete trackers and other features. An ideal gout app would have an allopurinol titration calendar, and customisable gout flare action plan, which this lacks.
Safety concerns: There is no information about stopping allopurinol if the user develops a rash.
New Zealand relevance: The app uses mg/dL instead of mmol/L for uric acid units.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Rebecca Grainger, Rheumatologist, University of Otago and Hutt Valley DHB
Date of review: August 2016
Platform: Android
Version: 1.01
Comments: This app is most useful for people wanting to know more about gout, identify factors that affect their gout and monitor their treatment. Using this app may help someone learn more about the disease, track their symptoms, management and serum uric acid.
Safety concerns: None
New Zealand relevance: American units of measurement may be confusing to the New Zealand user, eg, serum uric acid tracker in mg/dL (units used in the US) – in New Zealand serum uric acid is measured in mmol/L. Since the app is Americanised, some medications mentioned in the treatment options are not available in New Zealand, such as pegloticase.

Gout | Mate waikawa kai kōiwi
NZ Health App Library
Consumer guide: how to choose a health app
Clinicians guide: how to choose a health app

This app has been reviewed by other independent websites:

Managing gout(external link) iMedicalApps

References

The following references relate to articles about apps for self-management of gout:

Serlachius A, Schache K, et al. Association between user engagement of a mobile health app for gout and improvements in self-care behaviors: randomized controlled trial(external link) JMIR Mhealth, Uhealth. 2019; 7(8): e15021.
Nguyen AD, Baysari MT, Kannangara DRW, et al. Mobile applications to enhance self-management of gout(external link) International Journal of Medical Informatics. October; 94: 67-74.

Disclaimer: The NZ Health App Library is a free consumer service to help you decide whether a health app would be suitable for you. Our review process is independent. We have no relationship with the app developers or companies and no responsibility for the service they provide. This means that if you have an issue with one of the apps we have reviewed, you will need to contact the app developer or company directly.

Factsheets – using health apps safely

How to choose a health app
Healthify He Puna Waiora, NZ

Privacy and security tips for using health apps
Healthify He Puna Waiora, NZ

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Gout Central app

Gout Central app

Gout Central app overview

What does the app do?

Pros and cons

Reviews

Clinical review

Clinical review

Related topics on Healthify

More information

References

Factsheets – using health apps safely