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The number of mobile health applications (mHealth apps) available to consumers now surpasses 165,000 (here). One-fifth of smartphone owners had health apps in 2012, and 7% of primary care physicians recommended a health app.

The FDA has even approved the prescribing of mHealth such as the DiabetesManager System, which captures, stores and transmits blood glucose levels.

Unfortunately, many health apps do not have privacy policies informing users of how personal health data is collected, stored, transmitted, and shared with third parties. Even when there are privacy policies, many health apps do not fully inform patients of how their data will be used or shared.

In a study appearing in the March 8 issue of JAMA, Sarah R. Blenner, J.D., M.P.H., of the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, and colleagues examined the privacy policies of Android diabetes apps and the sharing of health information. They found that 81% of the apps did not have privacy policies. Of the apps with privacy policies, only 4 said they would ask users for permission to share data.

 

Read more details here.

Via Pharma Guy