Using apps on smartphones to monitor health conditions is one of the latest trends among patients. As more health apps continue to enter the market, it’s important to stay informed about the latest apps—and their pros and cons—so you’re prepared to help when patients have questions.
Apps that offer tracking for factors like blood sugar levels and heart rate, and other chronic disease management tools, continue to flood the market. At first glance, these apps might seem like a beneficial tool to manage health, but concerns about privacy and quality are piling up.
A study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association found that 70 percent of medical apps shared one important weakness: privacy. Only 30 percent of the 600 most popular health apps had a privacy policy. And, multiple studies have found that people don’t read privacy policies. (Most are lengthy and difficult to understand.) If your patients don’t fully understand the privacy policies of their health apps, they could be compromising their personal and health information.
What you can do
Counsel your patients about health apps to make sure their personal and health information is protected. You don’t have to know the privacy policy for every app available. Instead, you can remind patients to check their apps’ privacy policy before downloading, and before they potentially share sensitive information.
Remind your patients that they should check the source on the information they get from apps. The openness of the app market means that the health advice is not always top-tier. Before patients self-diagnosis and treat, they should consult a health care professional.
While these apps can’t replace consulting from a health care professional, they can work in cooperation with a treatment plan, and they eventually might even be integrated into treatment programs.
New regulations
The debate continues about regulations for health apps and programs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in a press release that it intends to focus its regulation on two kinds of mobile apps. The first includes apps that turn the smartphone, tablet or other gadget into a medical device that would typically be regulated by the FDA, such as an app that allows a tablet to display medical images from a picture archiving and communication system. The second type of apps the FDA will focus on regulating include apps that enable the device to operate as an accessory to a regulated medical device, such as an app that allows an iPhone to operate as an endoscope.
The FDA is choosing to exercise enforcement discretion (meaning it’s currently choosing to forego regulation) when it comes to other mobile apps that pose minimal risk to consumers, such as apps that help you keep track how many ounces of water you drink each day.
Lawmakers, regulators and app developers must find a balance between patient safety and patient engagement. As new technology emerges and its functionality expands, it’s more important than ever for pharmacists to stay informed on the tools out there.
