Need to check your blood pressure? There’s an app for that. Want to keep track of all the calories you’ve consumed and burned? There’s an app for that. Do you want to turn your smartphone into a mobile heart monitor? Believe it or not, there’s an app for that.
As smartphone technology continues to improve, application developers and healthcare professionals are looking for new ways to ease the patient care process. In fact, developers have already created over 17,000 medical applications to help patients access and track vital information. The sector has been so flooded with new apps that the Food and Drug Administration recently stated it will begin regulating many of the advanced apps to ensure a glitch doesn’t spark an unnecessary medical emergency.
Although the vast majority of apps will still go unregulated, it’s a wise move on the FDA’s part to protect their interests. Imagine your iPhone crashes right before you knock over the last pig on a level in Angry Birds. You’d probably be upset, but you would simply re-launch the app and try to beat the level for a second time. Now imagine that you’re using your smartphone to deliver an EKG reading or to check your blood pressure, and a bug causes the reading to be vastly incorrect. This could result in unnecessary trips to the emergency room, or worse, a patient could self-medicate to correct the problem and overdose on prescription drugs.
Apps They’ll Regulate
The FDA said the majority of the apps they’ll regulate will be those that turn a smartphone into a mobile medical device, like:
- Heart monitors;
- Blood pressure apps and attachments; and
- Lung function readers.
Dr. Jeffery Shuren, director of the FDA’s medial device center, believes these apps can be instrumental in providing patients with the hands-on care they need outside of the doctor’s office, but they want to ensure the apps function as intended.
“Mobile apps have the potential to transform health care by allowing doctors to diagnose patients with potentially life-threatening conditions outside of traditional health care settings, help consumers manage their own health and wellness, and also gain access to useful information whenever and wherever they need it,” said Shuren.
The FDA has already approved roughly 75 medical apps that range in price from a few bucks to hundreds of dollars, and more apps are on the horizon. The FDA better move quick though, as they estimate that 500 million smartphone users will use some type of health app by 2015.
Dr. Silverman comments
Apps are a wonderful tool to keep patients and doctors connected. I’m personally fond of the Healow app, which we’ve written about before. Not only does it store your family’s medical history, but it also allows you to manage prescriptions and schedule appointments all with the touch of a button.
We’ve also talked about exercise apps in the past. Our “Five Apps to Track Your Run” post has been one of our more popular pages. Who knew all people needed to get off the couch and go for a run was the threat of a hoard of zombies!
I’m intrigued to see where medical app technology will take us in the future.
Related source: USA Today