Announced at end of last week were Happtique’s draft guidelines for certification of health apps. With tens of thousands in release and more every day, ‘trusted sourcing’ of apps and some certification mechanism that an app is secure, free from malware and does what it is supposed to do has been badly needed. [TA 25 June]. The 15 pages of certification guidelines center around operability, privacy, security, and content, building upon standards set by an alphabet soup of organizations/agencies like GSMA, FCC, FDA, ONC, mHIMSS etc. The ‘blue ribbon panel’ includes familiar-to-our-readers Dave DeBronkart (ePatient Dave) and David Lee Scher, MD. Comments on the draft guidelines are welcomed until 5pm EDT on Friday 17 August via Happtique’s electronic form here. (Comments originating outside of the US don’t appear to be restricted, but bear in mind that all the apps must meet US standards of privacy and security.) The draft guidelines are downloadable in PDF from here. Happtique’s release.
mHIMSS also has published its own 30 page guide to assist small to midsize practices in the process of selecting mobile apps, focusing on practice goals, market reviews and practice scenarios. FierceMobileHealthcare article.