More and more these days, the same smartphone technology that allows tourists to find the best latte nearby and bystanders to become instant video journalists at a natural disaster is making its way into medicine and health.
It's a big business. Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Health Research Institute estimates the annual consumer market for remote/mobile monitoring devices to be $7.7 billion to $34 billion, based on its surveys. In August, Apple iTunes reported that 10,000 medical, health-care, and fitness applications were available for download.
That's just the consumer market; there are already many examples of wireless technology used by doctors, hospitals, and other health-care providers.
The benefits are many, but there are questions, as well.
"So many different health apps pop up," said Joseph Kim, a doctor of internal medicine whose bachelor's degree is in mechanical engineering. "How do you as a consumer, or as a physician, know which ones are reliable or which are accurate?
"Unfortunately, the technology is moving faster than any regulatory body can keep up," said Kim, a vice president at Medical Communications Media Inc. in Newtown Township and a specialist in the use of technology in medicine.
"Releasing an app is very easy," he said, but if it is developed abroad, the standards may be different than they are in the United States. For example, a recommended drug may be approved elsewhere but not in this country.
"There are a lot of questions of liability that have yet to be answered. If a patient uses an app on the iPhone, who, at the end of day, is liable? If someone buys a WebMD Symptom Checker and there's a problem, is the Apple store liable? Is WebMD liable?"
