Expert Warns About Health Care Apps That Seem Too Good To Be True
Recent research on the reliability of health care apps raises the question: how do consumers sort out the ones that could put their health in jeopardy? A doctor who wrote the research letter has a few tips.
KPCC:
Health Apps: How Do We Sort The Good From The Bad?
According to the research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the Instant Blood Pressure app missed high blood pressure levels in nearly four out of five people. The app's manufacturer argued the study was based on faulty methodology and thus invalid; the lead researcher defended the findings. The research raises some bigger questions: How can we as consumers determine which mobile health apps can improve our health and which apps might actually put our health at risk? (Plevin, 3/9)
Meanwhile, it's rare for health apps to have privacy policies that actually protect patient data, a study finds —
Reuters:
Health Apps Often Lack Privacy Policies And Share Our Data
Just because a health app has a privacy policy doesn’t mean the data will remain private, an analysis of mobile tools for diabetes suggests. In fact, privacy policies appear rare, and when they do exist, most state that user data will be collected and half warn that medical information will be shared with third parties. (Rapaport, 3/8)