Practo: Yours healthily

The other day, I saw a doctor's nameplate outside a house in the lane next to mine. I wondered how I failed to notice it earlier and how many other doctors might be living around me whom I have never heard of. That is when I started searching the internet for a way to find a catalogue of all the doctors in one's vicinity.

And guess what I found? Practo - an app that lets you search for doctors in any specified location across major cities in India. That was my mini eureka moment.

Practo is a health care app that enables you to find doctors and book appointments at the click of a button. Users can choose from various specialists, such as dentists, dermatologists, gynaecologists, physiotherapists and so on, and enter their desired location to get a list of doctors nearby with their address, contact number, consultation fee, years of experience, qualifications, specialisations and timings for appointment.

Appointments can be booked directly through the app or one can even press the call option to get connected. You can save your upcoming appointments and also view previously booked appointments. Each doctor has a certain number of recommendations that appear quite similar to the Facebook likes. One can also filter their search according to their choice of fee, day, time and doctor's gender. Search for doctors is also possible by their names or clinics.

The app claims to list more than 125,000 verified doctors and clinic profiles. Not only does the app help you find doctors in your current location but even elsewhere, including Singapore and Manila. The user interface is simple and the search screen is nicely organised. With a size of just 5.73MB, the free app for Android and iOS devices is not heavy on your phone's memory.

However, the app needs to constantly update its database.

Oh! In case you are thinking the app is just meant for finding doctors, you are wrong. You can even book yourself an appointment at the nearest spa!