FDA Proposing Medical App Regulation

Since the explosion of smartphones and other technological devices the number of medical themed or medicine based apps available has grown significantly. These medical apps vary greatly in what they do, say, or recommend but today the FDA announced that they will begin looking into regulations for these in some way or another.

The FDA is planning to impose these regulations for two main reasons; first of all the FDA wants to limit or prevent false information from being spread to general consumers. More importantly the FDA wants to begin regulating how and when medical apps can be used by healthcare officials when treating or dealing with patients. This is a big step because currently some doctors are using a variety of smartphone or tablet apps without any real regulation.

Current regulations on the use of apps are pretty much nonexistent so most analysts say that adding some regulations is a great idea. No exact word on how restrictive the regulations will be and it will likely be quite some time before the FDA has anything concrete put in place as well. A final step that the FDA is hoping to include is the implementation of regulations on add on hardware for smartphone and tablet devices that will allow them to be used as precise medical instruments. The hardware is already in the works by many companies so adding some actual regulations should help speed the process and eventually help revolutionize the way technology in healthcare works.

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