Medical Professionals and Medical Apps: Why Oversight Must Come from Within

Abstract

Phone or tablet-based healthcare applications, or "medical apps," play an important role in an evolving healthcare system. The effect of medical apps on consumers has been welldocumented; however, little attention has been paid to the impacts that apps have had on medical professionals, people whose best interests like in ensuring that medical apps positively impact patient outcomes. After a brief introduction, introducing the spectrum of problems surrounding medical apps, this paper will move its focus to issues of concern for medical practitioners who prescribe or use medical apps as a part of their approach to medical care. Given the current lack of regulatory oversight of medical apps and noting the potential for improper use of these mHealth technologies, the authors will argue that as qualified, well suited, and interested parties, medical professionals should help to shape this new regulatory and ethical landscape. Additionally, before concluding, the authors will provide concrete examples of ways that medical professionals have put these ideas into practice.