A new free app has been developed to provide patients and the public with good quality, reliable information on a wide range of health topics.

The Prodigy Patient app contains evidence-based advice for managing over 300 conditions based on content from NICE’s resource for healthcare professionals, Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS). New topics are added frequently, while existing topics are reviewed continuously by a highly qualified team of pharmacists, pharmacologists, doctors and researchers.

The launch coincides with new research showing that over a quarter of Britons identify themselves as 'cyberchondriacs' – people who regularly search the Internet for health information – and that 58 per cent of such people conceal information from their doctor, in comparison to 28 per cent of the rest of the population.

The survey of 3,000 people also found that UK cyberchondriacs are twice as likely to take sick days, while three quarters admit to going to work while feeling unwell.

Dr Gerry Morrow, medical director at Clarity Informatics, the company behind Prodigy Patient, said: "When you’re depending on unreliable sources of information and hiding information from your doctor, it’s no wonder that cyberchondriacs are unable to have informed discussions. This inevitably results in people staying sicker for longer, dragging themselves into work through guilt and infecting their colleagues. This is a lose-lose situation for everyone.

“I believe that this new app could provide patients with invaluable information and will enable anyone to have access to a new experience in online clinical knowledge.”

Prodigy Patient is available via Android, IOS or Windows.