A lot of people try Smartphone health applications or apps to measure their blood pressure, which are untested, incorrect and potentially hazardous. Researchers analyzed over hundred top apps for high blood pressure and hypertension that are accessible for download on the Google Play store and Apple iTunes.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one among three adult Americans have high blood pressure, which also known as hypertension. The state has been called the silent killer because most of time it doesn’t show any warning symptoms but increases the risk of two leading causes of death as stroke and heart disease.
Apps that incorrectly measure blood pressure could lead to false alarms and probably fatal false pledges. According to the studies, three quarters among the top 107 apps for hypertension, which offer tracking capabilities by using a camera to analyze blood course proved bogus by the studies. Seven mostly downloaded Android apps among the three quarters proved useless by the studies, which apps claimed users needed only to press onto phone screens or cameras to get blood-pressure analysis.
“This technology is really in its nascent stages, and it’s not quite ready for prime time” Dr. Nilay Kumar told the Reuters Health, the main author of the research and an attending physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an instructor at the Harvard Medical School.
A rising number of hypertension patients use mobile-health technologies to follow and manage their health state, the authors write in the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension. A surprising number of users downloaded blood pressure measuring devices as many as 2.4 million times including a particular number of apps have been downloaded so many times. But the studies say, still it is really in a research-and-development stage and not ready for clinical use.
The study was conducted based in general news about blood pressure apps. The majority of the most popular apps permitted users to maintain their medical data. Around a quarter could straight export recorded information to physicians’ offices and nearly a quarter included tools to develop medication observance. But healthcare agencies helped develop only a tiny fraction of the apps, around 2.8 percent, the study originated.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not approved any of the blood pressure apps, which regulates medical devices. Findings of the studies raise serious concerns about patient safety and reveal an urgent need for greater regulation and oversight in medical app development.
“The idea that you’re going to be able to stick your finger on the camera of your Smartphone and get an accurate blood pressure reading is pretty unbelievable right now.” Dr. Karen Margolis told the Reuters Health, an intern and director of clinical research at HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis. So you should be careful about using Smartphone applications or apps that could be inaccurate and could be potentially dangerous for you.
Source: dailymail
