App for physiotherapists: your diary, records and payments on your phone

It is half past eleven and you have just left a home visit on the other side of the neighbourhood. At one o'clock a patient is waiting at the clinic, at six you have the youth team at the club, and on the way a patient messages you because she needs to move Thursday's appointment. If your diary is a notebook sitting on the clinic desk, that reply will have to wait until the afternoon.

A good app for physiotherapists sorts that moment out from your phone. You see the free slots, move the appointment, send the reminder and, before ringing the next doorbell, read what you wrote down in the last session. This guide covers what a practice management app for physios should do, what changes between installing it and opening it in the browser, how to protect the health data you carry on your phone and what it costs.

What kinds of app for physiotherapists are there?

Search for "app for physiotherapists" and the same list mixes tools that have nothing to do with each other. It is worth sorting them out before you compare prices:

• practice management apps, with the diary, patient files, clinical records, reminders and payments;
• exercise apps, where you build a home exercise programme with videos for the patient to follow;
• reference and training apps, such as anatomy atlases or assessment tests, which you use to study or to explain an injury to a patient.

All three can live on the same phone. This guide is about the first one, the physiotherapy app that runs your day to day and gives you back the most hours each week. If you want to see how to choose complete software for your practice, feature by feature, read our guide on what physio software should include.

What a practice management app for physiotherapists should do

There is a simple test. Can you do from your phone, one-handed and standing in a doorway, what you would do sitting at the clinic? These are the tasks that come up most often in a normal week, and what the app should make easy in each of them.

See and move appointments wherever you are

Your physio diary on your phone has to be easy to read on a small screen, with the day in view and the week one tap away. If you work in several places, say your clinic, a gym and home visits, each appointment should show where it is and how long it lasts. Recurring sessions save a lot of work: a course of two sessions a week for a month is created once, not eight times.

Clinical records before you walk in

In the lift you want to check what you did last time and how the patient responded. The clinical record should open in two taps and let you write when you finish, even with your keyboard's dictation if you are in a hurry. Whatever you do not note down at the end of a session is gone by the next one.

WhatsApp reminders without copying numbers

A message the day before prevents many no-shows. The app should write it with the name, day and time and send it from your own WhatsApp in one tap, or send it automatically 24 hours before with buttons to confirm or cancel. If someone cancels, you find out in time to give that slot to another patient.

Signing consent on a phone or tablet

Spain's Law 41/2002 requires written informed consent for invasive procedures, such as dry needling. Having the patient sign with a finger on the screen, with the PDF saved to their file, saves you printing, scanning and filing. And if you send a link before the first session so they can fill in their details and sign at home, you start without any paperwork on the treatment couch.

Take payment at the end and invoice without typing twice

When the session ends, you record the payment: cash, card, Bizum or bank transfer, in full or in part. If the patient has a session pack, the session comes off the pack. At the end of the month, what you have been paid should turn into invoices without copying anything. Bear in mind that, under the dates in force, if you invoice as a self-employed physio your invoices will have to come from a VeriFactu-ready system from 1 July 2027.

Installed app or browser app?

Many practice apps are no longer downloaded from any store. They open in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer, with your email and password. For a small practice, a physio app that works this way has some very practical advantages:

• you see the same thing on every device, because the data lives on the server and is not split between your phone and your computer;
• there are no updates to install, because the new version is there the next time you open the page;
• it makes no difference whether you have Android, an iPhone or the old computer at the clinic, and if you share a room, each physio logs in with their own account;
• if you want it one tap away, like any other app, you can add it to your home screen from the browser menu.

The trade-off is that it needs a connection. In a house with no signal, note the basics and add them to the record as soon as you are back outside. Before you decide, try it on your own phone: the diary should be readable without zooming, the buttons should not be hidden and you should be able to create an appointment with one hand.

Your patients' data on your phone

A phone gets lost, dropped on the underground or left behind in a changing room far more easily than the clinic computer. And what it holds is health data, which the GDPR protects as a special category. In its advice on working from a mobile device (in Spanish), Spain's National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) recommends, among other measures, a screen lock that kicks in quickly with a code that is hard to guess, not storing information you do not need on the phone, and being able to lock or wipe it remotely if you lose it.

Ask the same of the app:

• patient files and records encrypted on servers in the European Union, not stored inside the phone;
• a PIN it can ask for before opening the clinical record, even when you are already past the phone's lock screen;
• a list of the devices where you are logged in, so you can close the session on a lost phone from your computer;
• a data processing agreement signed with you, as the GDPR requires.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) brings together its guides, reports and queries on health data in its health section (in Spanish). Think ahead to the day you change tools, too: Law 41/2002 requires you to keep clinical documentation (in Spanish) for at least five years after each patient is discharged, so ask before you sign up how you could take that data with you.

The app is for your patients too

Your patients carry their phones too, and they can take some of the work off your hands. Some apps give them their own space, with a code and a PIN, where they see their upcoming appointments, cancel or request a new one, download the documents you share with them and sign any pending consent forms. If you write a patient summary at the end of the session with the exercises to do at home, they find it there, not on a sheet of paper that ends up at the bottom of a sports bag.

The other half is online booking. A link to your diary showing your free slots, on your website or sent by WhatsApp, lets patients pick a time without calling you in the middle of a session. The request reaches you with the message already written, and the appointment is booked once you confirm it.

How much does an app for physiotherapists cost?

Practice apps are almost always paid for with a monthly fee per professional, and the price goes up with what is included: number of patients, automatic reminders, invoices per month or storage for files. Before you look at the figure, count what you will actually use. A physio starting out with fifteen patients does not need the same as a clinic whose diary is full from Monday to Saturday.

Look at what is missing from the price table as well. Ask whether there is a minimum contract, whether WhatsApp reminders have a cap, whether invoicing is included or extra, and whether you can try it with your real patients before paying. A month's trial with your actual diary will tell you more than any comparison.

How to try a physio app in one week

You judge an app by using it, so give it a normal working week:

1. On day one, import your patients from a spreadsheet or from an export of your current diary, and set up your working hours and the places where you work.
2. Create the week's appointments, including a series of sessions, and switch on reminders to see what the patient receives.
3. For two days, use only your phone: the diary, the clinical record at the end of each session and payments.
4. Have one patient sign a consent form on the screen and send another the link to fill in their details at home.
5. On the last day, check on your computer everything you did on your phone. If it is all there and you did not have to copy anything, that app works for you.

My Fisio Agenda: the app for physiotherapists that opens in your browser

My Fisio Agenda is software for physiotherapists made in Spain that you use as an app in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install. Everything in this guide is already built in:

• day, week and month views, with recurring sessions, blocked hours, several locations and treatment rooms;
• clinical records for each session, private and encrypted, with one summary for you and another the patient reads in their own space;
• WhatsApp reminders, unlimited manual ones from your phone and automatic ones 24 hours before with Confirm and Cancel buttons;
• consent forms signed on a phone or tablet, and a form patients fill in before their first session;
• payments, session packs and VeriFactu-ready invoicing;
• "My Space" for your patients and a booking link with your free slots;
• a PIN for clinical records, two-step verification by email and the list of devices with an open session, so you can close the one on a lost phone.

There is no minimum contract: Semilla costs €4.99 a month (up to 15 patients), Junior €19.99 with unlimited patients and Senior €29.99 for busy diaries, plus VAT. If you run a clinic, there are plans for teams of up to 15 physios. You can try it free for 1 month, no card needed, with your real patients.

Frequently asked questions about apps for physiotherapists

What physios ask us most before moving their diary to their phone.

Is there an app for physiotherapists that you do not have to install?

Yes. Many practice apps run in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer, and you just log in with your email and password. My Fisio Agenda works like this, with nothing to download from any store, and you can add it to your home screen from the browser menu if you like.

Can I use the diary app without an internet connection?

Apps that open in the browser need a connection, either mobile data or wifi, because the information is on the server and not on the phone. If you visit a house with no signal, note the basics and add them to the clinical record as soon as you have signal again.

Is it safe to carry my patients' clinical records on my phone?

It is if the records are encrypted on servers in the European Union and not inside the phone, if your phone has a screen lock, and if the app asks for a PIN to open records and lets you close the session on a lost phone from another device.

Which app can send appointment reminders by WhatsApp?

A practice management app that writes the message with the day and time of each appointment. In My Fisio Agenda, manual reminders from your own WhatsApp are unlimited on every plan, and automatic ones are sent 24 hours before with buttons to confirm or cancel: 20, 100 or 250 a month depending on the plan.

Can my patients sign informed consent on a phone?

Yes. The patient signs with a finger on the phone or tablet screen and the signed PDF is saved to their file. You can also send them a link to fill in their details and sign at home before the first session.

How much does an app for physiotherapists cost?

Usually a monthly fee per professional. My Fisio Agenda costs €4.99 a month on the Semilla plan, €19.99 on Junior and €29.99 on Senior, plus VAT and with no minimum contract, and you can try it free for 1 month, no card needed.

Does the same app work for a self-employed physio and for a clinic?

In My Fisio Agenda, yes. Self-employed plans include one diary, and clinic plans, from €99.99 to €159.99 a month plus VAT, bring together up to 5, 10 or 15 physiotherapists, with everyone's diary in real time, treatment rooms, commissions and the clinic's invoicing.