Healthcare Apps Pose Several Safety Concerns to Users
[Thursday, October 24, 2019] Healthcare management apps pose several risks to consumers using them including giving incomplete or incorrect information, providing non-validated instructions for managing a given health condition, failure to respond to health danger, and faulty alarms. This is based on a review of 74 independent clinical studies conducted in the last two years to evaluate the safety risks of mobile apps. In a systematic meta-analysis of peer-reviewed published studies describing use of mobile devices, researchers identified 80 safety issues that could hurt the consumers depending on them. About 84% of the safety issues were due to concerns about the quality of the content presented by the apps. Incorrect information was the most common safety concern with the app misdiagnosing the disease, providing wrong feedback or suggesting wrong treatment options. Another common issue identified was incomplete information where the app did not address all potential health situations encountered by its users, or did not provide information on all aspects of a disease or condition being monitored by the app. Many apps for similar health conditions provide varying and often contradictory information creating confusion, while several apps yielded incorrect output based on the information collected from its users, and many apps provided inappropriate response or guidance. About 16% of the safety concerns were due to inadequate functionality of the apps. Many apps lacked essential features desired by its intended users, have inadequate user validation, took too long to process information, or provided faulty alarms. There were 52 reports of serious safety events in the users due to the mobile app usage. Most common safety issues are putting the users in hazardous situations by misleading the users based on faulty information output. In many cases, the apps were pointed to be cause of the users taking incorrect actions, leading to the opposite effect than intended, increase in anxiety, distress and even depression. The authors concluded that the most common reason for these issues are the developers not appropriately involving doctors, patients and healthcare providers in the design, development, testing and validation of the apps. Also, it seems the developers did not conduct adequate research to collect appropriate evidence in support of the apps’ utility to its users. This research provides several pointers to app developers. With more than 97000 health apps available, these tips may help apps stand out over the very crowded field to the users and may fulfill the niche of app-based health self-management. |
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