Medical App Traffic Jam Ahead

A woman uses her Apple iPhone 4 smartphone on a street in Seoul May 24, 2011.

Image: REUTERS/Truth Leem

If you think Apple’s review process for applications is tough and arbitrary, just wait around a bit. The federal government is about to get involved in the process.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is going to be reviewing certain medical-related mobile applications—the small but important slice of the market that aids the practice of medicine by allowing medical professionals to go mobile with such tasks as reading X-rays or MRIs. Reuters reports this morning that the FDA is looking at regulating such apps as they would medical devices.

The move toward mobile apps in medicine been touted as a benefit to patients and a cost-saver for the industry.

Far be it from me to say that this FDA oversight doesn’t make sense, given how important apps have become in many businesses, and how bad a faulty medical app could be for someone’s health. But don’t expect medicine to move quickly into the mobile world if yet another layer of bureaucracy is added to the process.

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