Mobile health apps are promising, but the upcoming Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines regulating them may impose an undue burden and stifle innovation, according to the keynote panel discussion at the Fourth Annual health World Congress in Boston last week, HealthImaging.com reports.

The FDA's focus on mobile health apps is on patient safety, according to panelist Bakul Patel, with the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Devices. The FDA published draft guidance for mobile apps in July 2011 and is expected to issue final guidance in the form of regulations later this year.  

However, the draft guidance needs to be clarified, and the FDA should weigh the benefits of mHealth apps against the costs should they need FDA approval, said Brad Merrill Thompson, General Counsel to the mHealth Regulatory Commission.  

The FDA's focus and oversight is of mobile apps that perform a medical function and present the greatest risks to patients when they don't work as intended. The agency's draft guidance applies in most cases only to mobile apps that either transform the mobile platform into a medical device or controls an existing one's use, function, modes or energy source.

The prospect of new regulations arren't stifling all innovation, according to another panel discussion held at the Congress, CMIO reports. For instance, Children's Hospital Boston's Chief Innovation Officer Naomi Fried noted that her hospital has an in-house health IT development team and is creating its own mHealth app that patients can use to see their providers, access their personal health information and ask questions of hospital staff.   

To learn more:
- read this article about the FDA panel discussion
- here's the one about Children's Hospital Boston
- learn about the mHealth Congress
- check out the FDA's guidance

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Healthcare organizations not only have to contend with protecting patient health information on their own health IT, but also have to worry about data stored on physicians' and others' mobile devices, according to a panel discussion at the Fourth Annual mHealth World Congress in Boston this week, mHIMSS.org reported.

HIPAA and other privacy and security laws were enacted before the surge in mobile device use, and don't incorporate the challenges of using them, warns panelist Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. 

Some of the other issues affecting the security and privacy of patient information on mobile devices include the fact that providers often won't use the security features in their mobile devices and that devices themselves are often not kept secure, leaving them vulnerable to loss or theft.   

John Halamka, M.D., professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, also speaking on the panel, noted that the cost of dealing with a  security breach is greater than the cost to have secured the personal device.

Halamka recently issued a post saying that simply having a policy to protect the security of mobile devices is not enough, and as a result BIDMC is launching an initiative to better protect the security of mobile devices connecting to the Center's network. These minimum requirements include password protections on the devices, a time-out feature requiring new password key-in, anti-malware protection, disabling of unnecessary software such as Bluetooth, encryption, continual custody of the device and no use of the cloud for backup.  

BIDMC recently suffered a breach when a laptop was stolen from one of its physicians, putting the data of 3,900 patients at risk. And last year a computer virus affected the records of more than 2,000 patients at risk.

To learn more:
- here's the mHIMSS article
- read Halamka's blog post
- read about Beth Israel's other security problems

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The Defense Department has created a mobile app called LifeArmor to help military families develop coping skills and deal with common mental health concerns.

LifeArmor takes content from DoD's AfterDeployment website on dealing with the challenges of military life. It includes information, assessments, videos with personal stories and interactive exercises on 17 topics: alcohol and drugs, anger, anxiety, depression, families and friendships, families with kids, life stress, mild traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, physical injury, post-traumatic stress, resilience, sleep, spirituality, stigma, tobacco, and work adjustment. 

The app, designed for Apple and Android devices, can be downloaded for free at the App Store, Google Play and soon on the Amazon Marketplace, according to an announcement.

AfterDeployment, which launched in 2008, provides content aimed at service members returning from combat deployments. It was developed by psychologists at the Defense Department's National Center for Telehealth and Technology, known as T2, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash.

One of the psychologists, Robert Ciulla, warned that while the app's assessments can bring potential problem areas to light, they're not intended to replace professional counseling.

The Defense Department and the Veterans Administration have been working to expand mental health services and experimenting with various technical means to do so. Last month the VA announced it had set a goal of providing 200,000 remote consultations this year through videoconferencing. It's experimenting with handing out iPads to caregivers through its Clinic-in-Hand pilot program. The tablets will give them access to VA apps, a mobile EHR and other mobile resources.

The VA also has funded a study at Stanford University on how mobile apps can help patients experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

An article on the T2 website highlights its study of virtual reality in therapy for PTSD, recreating a personalized scenario in which the patient was traumatized and forcing the patient to face it head-on. DoD and VA use myriad treatments for PTSD, though a recent report from the Institute of Medicine rapped them for failing to track them and their effectiveness.

To learn more:
- read the announcement
- learn more about LifeArmor
- check out AfterDeployment
- here's the T2 PTSD article

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Healthcare apps that are downloaded today may be forgotten tomorrow, according to a HealthWorks Collective article. It likens using health apps to starting a new exercise regimen. A person might be gung-ho at first, but loses motivation over time. Maintaining that engagement remains a huge hurdle for providers.

No matter how enthusiastic a user might be initially, for an app to be used regularly, it has to be simple.

Nick Martin, vice president of innovation, research and development at UnitedHealth Group, told HealthTechZone that providers and payers increasingly look to apps, not only for financial and medical benefits, but to actively engage with patients. To do so, the apps must provide value for both sides.

Mobile healthcare and medical app downloads should reach 44 million by the end of this year, rising to 142 million in 2016, but the percentage of people who have downloaded one has remained at 10 percent for the past two years. In that time, the number of health apps has grown from 2,993 in the beginning of 2010 to 13,619 in April of 2012, according to World of DTC Marketing.

Mobihealth News tracks health apps and says they fit into 12 subcategories, including cardio fitness, dieting, stress relief, chronic condition management and medication adherence. It notes two emerging trends, though, including management of seasonal allergies, physical therapy apps and branded doctor's office apps that allow scheduling and messaging, in some cases.

The problem is that too many of the apps are duplicative. After all, how many BMI calculators does a person need? Far fewer are focused on managing chronic conditions, though apps to help manage diabetes tend to be among the most popular.

Beyond consumer health apps, the market for medical apps is expected to grow faster than the overall market, at an annual rate of 25 percent through 2016, according to Kalorama Information.

Apps' value in medicine appears greatest in the ER, where doctors can use speech-recognition technology to dictate notes on an iPad or send photos of an eye injury to a specialist via a smartphone. There, the value comes through helping doctors provide better care to patients and do it more easily.

To learn more:
- read HealthWorks Collective article
- here's the World of DTC Marketing post
- check out the Mobihealth News article
- here's the HealthTechZone story
- check out the Kalorama Information numbers

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Want to improve satisfaction at your organization? Offer free Wi-Fi. 

That's one of the suggestions from a PwC Health Research Institute report released today. Consumers also want to be able to exchange information through online and mobile channels of communication, according to the report, based on a nationwide survey of 6,000 consumers across nearly a dozen industries. 

PwC notes that today's healthcare consumers' expectations mirror those of consumers in other industries--24-hour service and mobile access, for example.

According to the report, the ideal experience is built on nonclinical factors like convenience, customer service and staff attitudes.

"The voice of the customer may be the best kept secret in healthcare, but that's changing as consumers exert greater control over how their healthcare dollars are spent and exercise power to vote with their feet and wallets," PwC U.S. Health Industries leader Kelly Barnes said in a statement. "Hospitals and insurers are competing for loyal customers served by new care and coverage models in a more retail-oriented health market."

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