A Blue Cross Blue Shield Association licensee has launched a mobile health app that can provide subscribers to its international health insurance program access to a network of physicians and a terminology tool kit based on their global location.
The GeoBlue mobile app provides details of more than 6,000 western-trained, English-speaking physicians in 180 countries. It is aimed at American expatriates and international travelers.
The app gives brand-name equivalents for more than 350 prescription and over-the-counter medications. It also has built-in translation tools with audio. Users can hear key medical terms and phrases in the most widely spoken languages, a statement from Radnor, Pennsylvania-based GeoBlue said.
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It plans to offer a version of the app to nonmembers at some point, probably under its mpassport brand, a spokeswoman for the company said in an email.
The GeoBlue app is currently only available for iPhones, iPads and iTouch, although the company is looking at expanding it to Android and BlackBerry platforms. The app is an expansion of a Web-based system launched in November, and is intended to help subscribers be more self-sufficient when traveling overseas. Users can still contact may be an acknowledgement of an increasingly international subscriber base.
Aetna offers an international app for expat subscribers and International SOS offers a similar app, but is not based on an insurance plan.