Doctor Smartphone Meaningful Health Apps?

Doctor Smartphone: How useful are health apps?

03/30/2015

Thousands of health apps for smartphones are now on the market. Many of them are available for free. It can be used to measure heart rate, to remember the pill and even to make initial diagnoses. Although the apps can do a lot, the doctor can not replace them.

Advisor on health issues in your pocket
Thousands of smartphone apps for health, fitness and medicine are now available on the market. Constantly new ones are added. You can find among others, blood pressure monitor, pain diary, pills alarm clock or nutrition guide. More and more people are using the programs. Like Thomas Brauer, who always has his little health consultant in his pocket. The 32-year-old told: „With an app I can calculate my personal need for protein, calories and fats. This helps me to keep my weight and to eat a balanced diet.“ Even when shopping he has a helper: „When I buy groceries in the supermarket, I sometimes take pictures of the pack and get an app listing what exactly is in it.“ But he does not rely on the programs in all areas of life: „If I have skin problems, I go to my doctor. If I just mailed a photo of the skin to the practice for diagnosis, I would not feel safe“, so the allergic person.

Tens of apps for fitness and health
The apps for smartphones and tablets or for the wrist as a watch or band - wearables - are a megatrend. As the news agency dpa reports, there are already around 87,000 offers for fitness wellness and about 55,000 medical apps among the three million apps. This was announced by Hartmut Gehring from the University of Applied Sciences Schleswig-Holstein at an expert meeting of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) in Bonn. It is not always distinguishable whether the programs offer only information, belong more to lifestyle and fitness or reach into the medical.

Risk of misdiagnosis
Sandra Hoyer from the Bitkom e-Health working group sees one, according to the agency „digital revolution in the healthcare industry“. With the apps you can, for example, heart rate or blood pressure measurements, to remember the medication intake or to document side effects, blood values ​​or migraine attacks. In addition, it is said that a patient to detect skin cancer, the suspicious spot on the skin with the smartphone scan and email the photo for evaluation to the doctor. Furthermore, visual or hearing tests are used and there are kidney function calculators, apps for patients with Parkinson's, diabetes, asthma or people with sleeping problems. In some cases, there is also support from the health insurance. For example, Central Krankenversicherung in Cologne equips Type 2 diabetes patients with an iPhone, a pedometer and a blood glucose meter to better monitor the disease. As BfArM expert Wolfgang Lauer quoted from a survey, some consumers, as well as many doctors, see a risk of misdiagnosis. The market is booming and offers new opportunities. „Promising, but also problematic“, so lurking.

Doctor smartphone does not replace a doctor
For the two leading smartphone platforms (Android from Google and iOS from Apple) there is a single point of contact and a separate development environment for the topic of health. These are called the iPhone „Apple Health“ and on Android „Google Fit“. There, data from various programs and sensors are merged. BfArM President Karl Broich said that although the apps allow more patient self-guidance in the treatment, there is a risk of misdiagnosis and misinterpretation of images. It should not happen that users say: „I do not have to go to my doctor or pharmacist anymore.“ It was too risky to rely on Doctor Smartphone alone. Often, manufacturers also point out that their app has a „qualified medical or medical care“ not replaced.

„Even with the doctor there are misdiagnoses“
Apps are now also used in medical practices or in everyday clinical routine. For example, they are used in operations to control the surgical robots. Anesthetist Gehring reported a software that helps in the dosage of drugs in pediatric intensive care. He himself believes that first „mature patients“, who comes to him via a finished diagnosis obtained via App, but rather check after, if the data does not seem plausible to him. If the software according to the manufacturer „the detection, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of diseases“ serves, then that is „Medical App“ As a medical device to evaluate and must meet the appropriate standards, said the Essen medical lawyer Volker Lücker. However, according to experts, much is still unregulated when monitoring the manufacturers and controlling the medical apps. Markus Müschenich from the Federal Association of Internet Medicine says that it creates the offer to accompany the patient in his everyday life. He also said: „Even with the doctor there are misdiagnoses.“ (Ad)