NPR's health blog "Shots" discussed medical apps today and has great points:
Medical apps allow individuals to track medical information such as blood sugar levels, calorie intake and can even remind you when to take each of your medications.While revelaing yoru calorie count for breakfast might not be earth shattering, sharing your prescription roster with drug companies or accidentally emailing them to family may reveal more about your medical history than you care to share. Some apps actually include legal language in their waivers that states that from time to time they "will share your information with advertisers..." If they include this language in their terms of use, app owners can legally sell your information tracked by the app.
The potential of mis-emailing information or having medical information shared with advertisers is a risk posed by medical apps. They are not regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) who sees the apps as more of a convenience than medical service. The FDA explained this summer it would only consider (and still does not regulate) apps that "could present risk to patients if [they] don't work as intended."
Along with not being regulated by the FDA, HIPPA laws (laws that protect that confidentiality of medical information) do not protect information stored and shared within online apps.
So, if you are considering using medical apps, understand that you may not want to use them to store medical information you hope to keep private.
Christina I certainly have to agree with you on this. I have explored certain apps on my iPhone for medical purposes. There are literally dozens of them of varying quality. I would also suggest speaking with one's own medical provider and see if they are using apps and to what extent they check into the background and legal information supplied by the application developers. Also considering what the limits of the application are and how it is secured is important as well. Is it password protected or does anyone with access to the phone have access to the information are all really important questions before considering using applications for medical purposes.