diff --git a/docs/handlers/app.go b/docs/handlers/app.go
index f60290d0..ab33e8a6 100644
--- a/docs/handlers/app.go
+++ b/docs/handlers/app.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/docker/distribution"
 	"github.com/docker/distribution/configuration"
 	ctxu "github.com/docker/distribution/context"
+	"github.com/docker/distribution/health"
 	"github.com/docker/distribution/notifications"
 	"github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/errcode"
 	"github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/v2"
@@ -203,6 +204,20 @@ func NewApp(ctx context.Context, configuration configuration.Configuration) *App
 	return app
 }
 
+// RegisterHealthChecks is an awful hack to defer health check registration
+// control to callers. This should only ever be called once per registry
+// process, typically in a main function. The correct way would be register
+// health checks outside of app, since multiple apps may exist in the same
+// process. Because the configuration and app are tightly coupled,
+// implementing this properly will require a refactor. This method may panic
+// if called twice in the same process.
+func (app *App) RegisterHealthChecks() {
+	health.RegisterPeriodicThresholdFunc("storagedriver_"+app.Config.Storage.Type(), 10*time.Second, 3, func() error {
+		_, err := app.driver.List(app, "/") // "/" should always exist
+		return err                          // any error will be treated as failure
+	})
+}
+
 // register a handler with the application, by route name. The handler will be
 // passed through the application filters and context will be constructed at
 // request time.