We’re obviously big proponents of the use of mobile apps in healthcare. For example, we recently listed the top medical apps, and we’ve even written about insurance companies reimbursing medical apps. These are all important trends in mobile health and we’re going to see more and more of it in the future.
The problem is that along with all of the good mobile health applications out there, there are also plenty of scammers making false claims about the medical value of their application. These should be avoided.
Mashable worked together with Joseph Kvedar from the Center of Connected Health to create a list of apps you should avoid:
1. Apps That Use Your Phone’s Light
2. Spot-Checkers
3. Cures From Sound
4. Insulin Dose Calculators
5. Treatment Testers
It’s sad for me to think that people somehow think the light on their phone or the sound on their phone has medical value. It’s amazing what will fool some people. Plus, I have little doubt that we’ll see even more pernicious and difficult to detect mobile health app scams.
A quote from Dr. Misra from iMedicalApps sums up the issue well, “Any app that claims to treat a disease of any kind should raise red flags upfront.” Consult your doctor if you’re not sure.
