Be a different middleman

摘要

HEALTH apps are a boon. They are great tools for encouraging patients with risk factors for one disease or another to change their lifestyles. But surely they can be no substitute for a live intervention by a health professional. Yet an article this week asks whether health apps might threaten pharmacy by cutting out the middleman (p355). The Journal believes not — after all, someone needs to point out the potential dangers. Currently anyone can develop a health app, so the accuracy of the information it provides may not be all that it should be. This may be especially true if the app is not altogether altruistic but is a commercial venture intended to make money for the developer. Another thing to be wary of is that some apps are funded by insurance companies, so the privacy of app-generated data may not be inviolable.