MGH Guides: iPads at Bellack: Home

Borrow iPads

iPads can now be borrowed from the Bellack Library!

The Bellack Library has two iPads available to lend to the Institute community. The iPads are preloaded with dozens of apps geared towards community health, health promotion, health literacy and more. These iPads are perfect for working with patients/clients, especially in community settings or when delivering health programs. Additionally, we have a wireless bluetooth speaker that can be checked out separately. Please ask a staff member to help you access the iPads and see our lending policy for more information.

iPad (5th generation)
Call Number: IPAD ORANGE or IPAD BLUE
Click the title to check for availability. Comes with bag, case, charging adapter and cable.
Hamilton Bluetooth Cube Speaker
Call Number: SPEAKER
Click title to check for availability.

Medication Management Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in medication management:

Care4Today
This app helps to remind people to take their medications on time. Family members or caretakers can check on whether the individual is taking their medications as prescribed and encourage them to do so.
Dosecast
This app helps to remind people to take their medications on time with, or without, internet. The app tracks time zones and adjusts reminders accordingly. The app helps to avoid overdoses by setting a maximum number of doses allowed per day.
Pill Monitor
This app helps individuals to manage their medications and take them on time. The app includes reminders and allows for delays, dosage of medications, and provides information on prescribed medications.

Caregiver Apps

The following app is to help assist caregivers:

VitaCare
This app allows caregivers and family members to remain in contact with their client throughout the day.

Daily Routine, Task Management, and Memory Aid Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in managing their daily routine, tasks, and memory:

Priority Matrix
This app helps individuals to keep track of important emails, prioritize and organize their daily schedule, and upload files. This app can sync with Mac, Windows, and Android.
Any.do
This app help individuals to keep track of their daily activities via a to-do list, calendar, timed and location based reminders. This app can sync with Android, IOS, web and desktop.
Home Routines
This app allows individuals to create a routine checklist of their household tasks. The app consists of a schedule, reminder notifications, and marks when the task is completed. The checklist automatically resets at the end of the given period of time. The app can be synced amongst multiple devices.
Scheduler
This app uses visual and auditory supports to help remind individuals to complete their daily tasks. Pictures, text, videos, and audio can be associated with a task. Visual and auditory reminders are used. This app is helpful for individuals with cognitive or memory impairments.
GoalPlanDo
This app provides a step-by-step planning method consisting of four steps (Goal, Plan, Do, Review) to guide the individual through their task. This is essentially the COPM. The app provides picture and camera supports and can be integrated with a calendar. This app can be used with both adults and children and has been found to be beneficial for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, traumatic brain injuries, and frontal lobe disorders.
Sorted3
This app is a daily organizer to help anyone seeking help with organization to keep track of their daily tasks. Tasks can be organized by importance, organized by deadline, and color coordinated. Both pictures and audio instructions can be used to emphasize and clarify tasks. The app creates a daily task list and provides reminders about upcoming tasks.
Timetable
This app helps high school and college students keep track of their classes and events in a weekly schedule. This app includes a task list to keep track of homework and due dates.
VisTimer
This app helps individuals to to set time limits using a visual pie chart to depict elapsed time. This app is helpful for visual thinkers, especially children who have difficulty conceptualizing time.
Alarmed
This app provides pop-up reminder alerts and timers to help with scheduling. Checklists can be created. This app is fully customizable. This app can by synched with iCloud.
CCal
This app is a calendar application that can upload to Google Calendar and Picasa to efficiently and quickly arrange schedules.
Musical Memory
This app helps to improve memory through a musical game.
iSays
This app is a memory skills game.
Memory Match
This memory app is a game to help children improve their concentration and memory. Bursting with fun and educational features, kids will have a ball matching cute pictures of more than 170 objects while learning their names and what kinds of sounds they make.

Exercise/Fitness Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in developing and maintaining an exercise/fitness routine:

Lose It!
This app allows individuals to set weight-loss goals, establish a daily calorie budget, and record food consumption and exercise levels. This app contains a database of foods and activities and new ones can be added. Consumption of nutrients can be tracked. Works without internet.
MyFitnessPal
This app serves as a weight-loss and exercise tracker. This app contains an online database of 1.5 million foods. Personalized recipes can be added. Allows for calories, carbohydrates, cholesterol, fat, fiber, protein, and sugar to be tracked. Frequently-used foods are remembered. Has a barcode scanner. Allows an unlimited number of exercises to be entered and tracked. This app can be synced with other devices.

Speech Recognition, Word Retrieval, and Text to Speech Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in speech recognition, word retrieval, text to speech, and auditory needs:

Voice
This app uses vocal recognition to type and search online. This app can be shared with up to six people.
Speak4Me - Text to Speak
This app allows the user to train their iPad/ iPhone to speak for them.
Speak Me
This app speaks for users who cannot to communicate with doctors and loved ones. The user writes on the screen with their finger or a stylus and the app converts it to speech.

Low Vision Apps

The following are apps that can be used to assist individuals who have low vision:

Be My Eyes
This app creates a live video connection between an individual with a visual impairment and a sighted volunteer when they need remote assistance. Reasons to use this app include using sight assistance to find items in the home and to compete a task.
TapTapSee
This app helps individuals with low vision to identify objects. Individuals take photos at any angle and the app auditory identifies the object.
Seeing Al
This app assists individuals with low vision by narrating their surroundings. This app provides auditory guidance to capture and recognize short text, documents, products, people, scenes, currency, color, handwriting, light, and images of other apps.
BigMagnify
This app turns your phone into a state-of-the-art magnifying glass. Magnify at 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x zoom levels. This app allows the user to use the screen as a BIG magnifying glass, freeze the image with a single tap, and share the image. There is an auto-focus mode and locked-focus mode. The app includes advanced image filters to improve visibility and readability and image stabilization.

Education Apps

The following are apps that can be used for education:

Aira Vision Sim
This app simulates what it is like for individuals with low vision. The eye diseases that are simulated are: age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, chronic open-angle glaucoma, corneal edema, diabetic retinopathy, homonymous hemianopia, macular degeneration, retinal detachment, retinitis pigmentosa.
In My Eyes
This app is an immersive virtual and augmented reality experience that simulates what life could look like with three retinal eye conditions. It shows what symptoms look like from a patient’s perspective to enhance disease education, empathy, and communication.
TheHumanBody
This app provides an interactive model of the human body to assists individuals in learning human anatomy. This is for ages 4+ to help develop foundational science literacy.
VisAnatomyLite
This app is a tool for learning anatomy and physiology. This app contains 120 high-resolution images of parts of the body, each with labels and descriptive text. The images can be interactively examined with the inbuilt ‘tap-and-pinch zoom’. 3-D models of body sections can be rotated on screen. The user can test their own knowledge with a quiz function.
CulturalandReligiousSensitivity
This app provides health care professionals with pertinent information to successfully communicate with and care for patients. This app is an easy-to-use, quick reference about the health care needs, expectations, and practices of the nine most common ethnicities and races.
HealthIQ
This health trivia app challenges your Health IQ to see how your health skills stack up through an exciting selection of trivia questions and word scrambles.

Sleep Routine Apps

The following are apps that can be used to assist individuals with their sleep routines:

iSleep Free
This app provides a variety of guided meditations to help individuals sleep more deeply. Individuals can create their own sleep program using a playlist feature which allows them to listen to up to six meditations in one session. There are options to listen to listen to voice alone or voice with music or nature sounds, and choose how long the background will continue after the voice guidance stops.
Relax Melodies
This app allows individuals to select sounds and melodies, combine them, and adjust the volume of each sound to create a mix. This app provides meditations designed for sleep.
CBT-i Coach
This app is for individuals who are engaged in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Insomnia with a health provider, or who have experienced symptoms of insomnia and would like to improve their sleep habits. This app provides a structured program that teaches strategies proven to improve sleep and help alleviate symptoms of insomnia. This app guides individuals through the process of learning about sleep, developing positive sleep routines, and improving their sleep environment.

Mental Health Apps

The following are apps that can be used to assist individuals with their mental health needs:

VirtualHopeBox
This app contains simple tools to help individuals with coping, relaxation, distraction and positive thinking. This app provides positive activity planning, distraction tools, and interactive relaxation exercises including guided imagery, controlled breathing, and muscle relaxation. Content can be personalized with pictures, recorded messages, coping cards, inspirational quotes, positive affirmations, and music.
MindShift
This app helps teens and young adults cope with anxiety by facing it instead of avoiding it. This app includes relaxation exercises, lists of symptoms of anxiety, and strategies to manage worry, panic, conflict, ordinary anxiety, and three specialized categories of anxiety: test anxiety, social anxiety, and perfectionism.
Thought Diary
This app uses the principles of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to help an individual cope with anxiety and depression. This app helps users to evaluate, understand, and change their thoughts and feelings. This app helps users to identify their emotions, analyze how and why they are feeling this way, challenge those negative beliefs, and change their thinking patterns for future situations.
Dragon In The Attic
This app is a re-playable game to help children 8-12 years of age cope with bullying. This focuses on health and well-being choices to provide greater awareness and instill confidence.
PTSD Coach
This app helps individuals with Post Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to manage their condition by providing education about PTSD, information about professional care, self-assessments for PTSD, and opportunities to find support. This app allows individuals to record and track symptoms and provides relaxation skills positive self-talk, anger management, and self-help strategies. This app can be customized and networking.
MoodKit
This app is designed to help you apply effective strategies of professional psychology to your everyday life. MoodKit helps you take action to improve your life, feel better by changing how you think, monitor your mood progress, and develop self-awareness and healthy attitudes.

Meditation, Mindfulness, Breathing, and Yoga Apps

The following are apps that can be used to assist individuals with stress relief and relaxation:

Breathe2Relax
This app is a portable stress management tool which provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and instructions and practice exercises to help individuals learn diaphragmatic breathing.
Meditation Rx - Relief for Patients & Families
This app provides guided meditations targeting different areas of stress related to illness and care giving and a learn to meditate section.
Mindfulness
This app provides a five day guided practice and introduction to mindfulness, timed sessions both guided and silent meditations from 3 to 30 minutes, personalized meditation, meditation reminders and notices, and statistics to keep track of meditations. This app can be integrated with the Health App to sync meditation practice time.
Noisli
This app provides a background noise and color generator for working and relaxing. Individuals can use this to drown out noises to help them to better concentrate and enhance productivity. Individuals can mix different sounds to create ambience tailored to their personal need. The sounds can be used offline. This app can be synced with different devices.
19 Minute Yoga
This app provides short, 19 minute audio classes with watercolor illustrations of each pose.
Daily Yoga
This app offers various guided yoga classes for beginners and to advanced students (500+ asanas, 200+ guided classes of yoga, pilates, meditation, 50+ workout plans, plus 10+ top coaches' workshops).
SuperStretch
This app is a fun, interactive yoga app created for kids, that can be used by the whole family. Move, play and breathe as Super Stretch introduces you to his friends and their yoga poses. Super Stretch is your guide who takes you on your journey. This app includes 12 yoga poses for all skill levels and ages, animated flashcards to live action with real kids showing how to do the poses, breathing breaks, and inspiring music with each pose.
Youper
This app utilizes artificial intelligence to personalize various techniques to fit your needs. It includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness and Meditation.
Smiling Mind
This app utilizes mindfulness meditation developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. Just as we eat well and stay fit to keep our body healthy, mindfulness meditation is about mental health and looking after the mind.

Healthy Living/Diet Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle:

Froogie
This app aims to engage children and parents to help them to make healthy food choices. This app allows users to track their daily servings of fruits and vegetables in a fun and interactive way.
Dr. McDougall Mobile Cookbook
This app contains over 1,000 healthy recipes, health tips, featured recipes, a shopping list, and a favorites section.
VegOut
This app can help motivate you to eat all your veggies! It provides a fun and simple way to calculate your daily vegetable goal and track your progress.
DineDecisions
This app will help you learn to make smart food choices with Kendra from CDC’s BAM! Body and Mind.

Smoking Cessation Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to assist in developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle:

quitSTART
This app allows the user to record moods and cravings for a cigarette. This app tracks smoking-cessation performance in graphs and in a history list and helps to identify factors that trigger the desire to smoke. This app provides tips and virtual rewards for staying smoke free.
Smoke Free
This app provides advice on quitting smoking. The app records and displays the amount of money that the user has saved by not smoking, the number of days the user has remained smoke free, and the number of cigarettes that would otherwise have been smoked. This app provides information on the user's energy levels, information on the condition of the user's circulatory system, and on the user's potential respiratory problems. There is also a 'diary' function that encourages the user to record simple smoke-related personal facts.

Safety and Fall Prevention Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to address safety and fall prevention:

Emergency
This app provides emergency alerts via The America Red Cross regarding severe weather and man made/natural hazards. This app allows individuals to monitor conditions in their area and check to see if loved ones are safe and let them know they are safe.
Blood Donor
This app helps you find nearby Red Cross blood drives, schedule appointments, earn rewards from premier retailers, follow your blood’s journey from donation through delivery (when possible), and create or join a lifesaving team and track its impact on a national leaderboard.
First Aid
This app puts expert advice for everyday emergencies in your hand. With videos, interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to know first aid.
Nymbl Training
The Nymbl Training app provides a comprehensive system for measuring, tracking, and improving balance. All interactions can be monitored and managed remotely.

Flu Prevention and Vaccine Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to address flu prevention and vaccines:

Flu Near You
This app is created by epidemiologists and relies on voluntary participation from the general public, asking individuals to take a few seconds each week to report if you or your family members have been healthy or sick.This app provides public health officials and researchers with real-time, anonymous information that could help prevent the next pandemic.
VaccineSchedules
This app provides quick access from CDC to ACIP - recommended immunization schedules, and contraindications adn precuations, complete with footnotes. This app is intended for healthcare professionals recommending and administering vaccines to infants, children, adolescents, and adults.
Vaccines
This app provides the public with information about the science, safety and importance of vaccines. This app provides information on vaccines and the diseases they prevent, vaccine safety topics, including autism, thimerosal and too many vaccines, types of vaccines and how they’re made, and recommended immunization schedules for children, teens and adults. This app also provides graphics depicting disease characteristics, such as levels of contagiousness and typical disease timelines, links to videos about vaccines, vaccine-related games, like hangman and matching, opportunities to record questions for the next doctor’s visit or email the Vaccine Education Center for answers to vaccine questions, and links to other online VEC resources, like booklets and Q&A sheets.
Solve Outbreak
This app is a disease detective game that provides clues and data to analyze in order to solve the outbreak and save lives.

Hygiene Apps

The following are apps that can be used with clients to address hygiene skills and routines:

iDo Hygiene
This app is an innovative and comprehensive app for learning common personal hygiene daily activities. The app includes 12 units and a game addressing, shampooing, face washing, hand washing, showering, teeth brushing, deodorant application, shaving, hair brushing, making a ponytail, and bathrooming in a private and public bathroom.
Daily Tasks
This app provides three activities to keep children engaged in teeth brushing, showering and shampooing. This app helps to improve fine motor and concentration skills.
Dirty Kids
This app is a hygiene game for young children. This app teaches basic hygiene skills through fun interactive characters and games.
Ella's Hand Washing Adventure
This app is an interactive game to teach children hand washing skills.
Brush Up
This app is a training game that teaches children toothbrushing skills. This app also includes a timer and songs.
Brusheez
This app teaches children toothbrushing skills through an interactive game.
Healthy Island
Healthy Island is a fun, replayable, game for children ages 7–11 years old. It encourages them to think about health and wellbeing choices in three areas: exercise, healthy eating and dental health.