Hello! I‘m working on a paper, which tries to define health apps and medical apps in the area of public health. Therefore I would be very interested in your opinion and references you know.
What are definitions for health and medical apps and where might be differences between the two of them?
According to the research paper, this approach fits under health apps since it is covering all patients.
Article App-Synopsis - Standard Reporting for Medical Apps
Please check the above paper to get your answer.
I could say Med App is mainly for professional use, Health App is mainly for the public use
Hello you all!
Thank you for your responses so far! As I see, two of you agree that a medical app is used by health professionals and a health app is used by the general public. In Germany we recently started the "Apps on prescription", which are labeled as medical apps/devices, that physicians can prescribe their patients to download. The costs of download & usage are then covered by health insurances. How would this approach fit into your understanding of medical/health apps?
According to the research paper, this approach fits under health apps since it is covering all patients.
A general health app can deal with any human functioning without a claim on medical evidence. Once the app does its work, it can be distributed.
A medical app does comply to medical evidence, undergoes severe testing and regulation adherence policies. In Europe it has to obtain a CE marketing authorization.
The development of any health app is thus far cheaper.
The medical CE app procedure takes a while and is costly. However, they are then allowed to be used in medical treatments
Just a pick from the WHO definition of health, all aspects in regard to physical, mental, social and economic being of an individual should be included in the health app (WHO 1948). It should expand to cover aspects of the social determinant of health. It should comprise of multiple layers of factors that determine the health of an individual. On the other hand , medical app is specific to the different physiological factors. The medical app is usually limited because it deals with reducing morbidity and mortality of an individual patient
(Naidoo and Wills, 2009)
It still could be distuinguished through the type of medical knowledge used and the CE marking.
If it is an app that diagnoses or treats a disease it is a medical app and needs CE.
Any other app aiming at some aspect as better health, support excersice, count stepps, give dietary advice, etc is a general health app. Whether or not it is prescribed or paid for by insurance is irrelevant with this respect.
Physicians can prescribe their patients to download" this expression indicates the medical app.
Dear Laura, The "Apps on prescription" may be categorized according to the health system of each country. In your (i.e., Germany) case, it looks like they belong to the health (public) apps category. In Canada we have a rather similar point of view.
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