Thanks to an array of small devices and applications for smartphones that gather vital health information and store it electronically, consumers can take a more active role in managing their own care, often treating chronic illnesses — and preventing acute ones — without the direct aid of a physician.

“Both health care providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving health care,” said Ralf-Gordon Jahns, head of research at research2guidance, which follows the mobile industry.

He added that the firm’s findings “indicate that the long-expected mobile revolution in health care is set to happen.”

Read more at the New York Times.