If you’re a physician who loves your smartphone, you may have thought about developing your own iPhone medical app. Here are stories of five doctors who did and their apps. iPregnancy, KidneyCalc, NeuroMind and SafeSurgery are all best sellers and primarily for professionals. Healthagen’s iTriage (for iPhone and Android) was developed by two emergency room physicians and blends information on symptoms, diseases and medical procedures with a nationwide directory of every hospital, urgent care, retail clinic, pharmacy and physician to provide a symptom-to-provider pathway for its users. Meridian Health’s five hospitals in central New Jersey are promoting this as a free download for both residents and the area’s summer vacationers. A tale of 3 app developers (American Medical News). [Excellent list of most popular medical apps by platform and a ‘how to’ follows] iTriage/Meridian Health release.
And Google has now made it possible for anyone – yes, anyone, including people who have never written software – to develop their own app for smartphones using the Android operating system. Start here.
Regulatory Issue
I would appreciate if anyone has had to consider the regulatory issues (MHRA in the UK, FDA in the US) related to such applications. Have the regulatory agencies spoken on these applications? Are they considered a medical device?
[Chandu, very much so here in the US and in our coverage. Brad Thompson (of law firm Epstein, Becker and Green) has outlined the issues on this side of the Atlantic. Return here to the link to his white paper which condenses his Mobihealthnews series–TA 24 June–and also his summary of his 7th article most pertinent to mobile apps ‘Nowhere to hide…’ TA 20 April. Also for shorter takes, see TA 24 May on the FUD it’s engendering. Perhaps someone could supply more information on parallels with the MHRA? Ed. Donna]