In a recent draft proposal, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will regulate apps that combine with medical devices that are already regulated by the agency, such as heart monitors that transmit data to a smartphone.
The FDA is taking these first steps toward applying regulation to expanding field of medical apps for smartphones and other mobile devices due to safety concerns. The agency said it will begin by regulating a handful of the apps that pose the greatest risk to users if they don’t work appropriately. No specific apps were named yet.
The iOS and Android operating systems shell out hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from overall. As a subsector of those, the amount of apps in the medical and health-related fields is also on the rise, tapping into a market designed to help people stay healthy.
According to the Associated Press, industry analysts estimate there are already more than 17,000 medical apps available that range from calorie counters to programs that allow doctors to view medical scans on their mobile devices.
