mHealth Apps
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App’d to Fail: Mobile Health Treatments Fail First Full Checkup
Health :: News :: January 29, 2013 :: :: Email :: Print Early trials using mobile technology including text messaging and apps lack rigor and show mixed results By Lucas Laursen
Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has been mired in a debate over how to oversee these high-tech products, and government officials have not pursued any other app developers for making medically dubious claims. Now, both the iTunes store and the Google Play store are riddled with health apps that experts say do not work and in some cases could even endanger people.
Many health apps are based on flimsy science at best, and they often do not work
Wanted: The bottom 10 worst medical apps
At the beginning of the year I received a call from Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and investigative journalism professor Rochelle Sharpe, who was planning to begin a project that looked at some of the worst medical apps available — or previously available — in app stores. Sharpe was working with a small group of Boston University journalism students to comb through Apple’s AppStore and Google’s Android Market (now called Google Play), to find apps that made spurious claims in an effort to take advantage of people. So many publications had spent the time to put together top ten lists for the (so-called) “best health apps”, Sharpe pointed out at the time, why hadn’t anyone taken the time to raise awareness about some of the worst?
IndiGO, an application developed by San Francisco-based Archimedes Inc., uses a patient's EHR and advanced algorithms to generate graphical analyses of that individual's health risks. The app brought its game face to last week's Health Data Initiative (HDI) in Washington, D.C., eventually walking away with a win. IndiGO was presented with the "Best of Care Applications" award at the HDI event earlier this month for its ability to provide a graphical representation of a patient’s heart attack or stroke risk, chance of developing diabetes and the predicted impact of interventions, such as lifestyle changes and medications that are most effective at reducing these risks. [See also: Application to boost data, trends analyses .] The algorithms that make this possible incorporate clinical evidence related to diseases, behaviors and interventions.
New app maps patients' health risks
The Real Promise of Mobile Health Apps
Technology :: Forum :: July 10, 2012 :: :: Email :: Print See Inside Mobile devices have the potential to become powerful medical toolsNew smartphone app targets clinical miscommunication
With more and more doctors using their smartphones to conduct business outside of the office, the potential for communication errors – ranging from misunderstood directions to "he-said-she-said" moments – is increasing dramatically. A New Jersey-based surgeon has created a mobile app designed to help doctors make sure their phone conversations are understood properly. The MedXCom app, part of a line of mHealth products developed by Giffen Solutions, records and stores the phone conversation between doctor and patient, giving both parties a HIPAA-compliant means of checking the facts. "All we're doing is creating an environment where these messages are secure," said Michael Nusbaum, a bariatric surgeon at Morristown Medical Center who launched Giffen Solutions in 2010. "If (both doctor and patient) know their conversation is being recorded, this makes them more comfortable. This actually bumps up the level of conversation and improves the level of care."
The Lancet Technology: June, 2012
“GPs to ‘prescribe’ apps for patients” declared a press release from the UK Department of Health earlier this year. The announcement, made to promote the Maps and Apps initiative, included enthusiastic descriptions of apps that allow patients to access their medical records, or to manage type 2 diabetes by monitoring food intake. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley provided a mixed metaphor in support (“With more information at their fingertips, patients can truly be in the driving seat”), and UK Digital Champion Martha Lane-Fox added “Using apps that locate local health services or apps that help you to get fit can dramatically improve your daily life”.
by: Craig Monsen, MS [Ed. This is the first part of a two part series.
5 steps to making your medical app idea a reality
Trial program lets docs 'prescribe' mHealth apps to patients
Happtique, a mobile health app store aimed at healthcare professionals, will launch a trial of mRx, which it touts as the first program to enable physicians to prescribe mHealth apps to patients. Happtique officials say more physician-to-patient services will improve compliance and health outcomes, and that Happtique's patent-pending technology will help physicians in all specialties to prescribe apps to patients. [See also: mHealth apps help with medication adherence .]
Thanks to a newly built software application (or “app”), the Journal can now be downloaded and read in an issue format on the iPad. The NEJM iPad Edition is now available in the iTunes App Store at no charge. The issue of February 23, 2012, is free, so that readers can see how an issue looks, works, and reads on their iPads. The app is designed as an issue-based reader, meaning that it allows downloads of the full text of single issues, including figures and tables, beginning with the first issue of 2012. Learning to navigate easily within and between articles and to the table of contents and extra features takes only a little practice. The app allows the reader to change the text size and to bookmark articles, add and save notes, e-mail articles, and even share articles on Facebook and Twitter.
The Journal's App for the iPad