There has been an exponential growth in the number of health apps but experts have warned they can be ineffective and inaccurate, and users are also risking the privacy of their personal data.
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The options when it comes to health apps are seemingly endless: a 2017 report said there were more than 3 million of them on app stores with about 200 new ones being created on a daily basis.
Health Informatics Society of Australia board member and secretary Dr Jen Bichel-Findlay said the sheer number made it hard for consumers to work out what apps were backed by evidence and which ones were not.
"You can just type in diabetes [in the app store] and up comes an entire range of apps, and you have no idea what it does and if in fact it's going to be useful for you," she said.
Dr Victor Pantano, chief executive of Digital Health CRC, said these health apps were "proliferating like crazy". With patients coming in every day with different apps, he said it was also difficult for health practitioners to have a good idea of what was worthwhile.
"There are just so many of them, your GP or clinician couldn't possibly keep track of everything that's coming out," he said.
It's perhaps not surprising then that research from Bond University this year found Australian doctors were recommending apps to patients sparingly because of a lack of knowledge about their effectiveness.
Just last month a report found fertility apps were full of "alarming" inaccuracies, with flaws leading some would-be women to think they were infertile.
While pharmaceutical drugs go through a rigorous compliance process before they are deemed safe enough to consume, and medical devices are allowed on the market only with approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the level of control over health app quality is much less clear.
Dr Lisa Parker, from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre, said health apps had to stick to app store regulations as well as privacy laws and digital content rules, but that did not control the quality of the health information or advice.
"The only way that you would capture the efficacy aspect is if it was regarded as a medical device, and then had to go through the fairly rigorous medical testing process," she said.
However Dr Parker, who has done research on mental health apps, said health regulators were struggling to work out which apps needed strict oversight.
"There are so many apps that come so quickly and they change all the time, the regulators just can't keep up," she said.
Accuracy not the only concern
Health data is "probably the most sensitive data you have," Dr Bichel-Findlay said, so privacy was a major concern. Unfortunately, Dr Parker said apps made money by sharing data.
"We're not talking about malign hacking here, just normal business practices," she said, adding she was less comfortable using health apps after conducting her own research.
"Even if you don't put your personal details into an app, health information is very sensitive and if you're putting it out there it's a matter of when not if it will be picked up."
But there are also positives to health apps. Dr Pantano said they were often educational - as was his experience using a health app in an effort to lose a bit of weight.
"I actually learnt more about what I was eating, it was really just for me an educational benefit," he said.
- SMH/The Age
