Smart phones may soon be on the front lines of patient-generated health information according to a panel discussion hosted by the Alliance for Health Reform today/Monday. Speakers from the Health & Human Services Department and the health care industry discussed new apps called “observation of daily living” currently being tested by both patients and doctors as a new way to monitor health and get patients more involved in their own health care.
The Center for Democracy & Technologies’ Deven McGraw, who is the health privacy project director, noted the security concerns connected with mobile phones, the legal challenges that remain with the technology and the Food & Drug Administration’s role in regulating medical apps. “The FDA is trying to draw a line between a medical and a wellness app. There are some apps you want to be regulated.”
Speakers included: Stephen Downs of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Stephen Rothemich of Virginia Commonwealth University, Deven McGraw of the Center for Democracy and Technology and Joy Pritts of the Health and Human Services Department Office of the National Coordinator.