Many smartphone health apps don't flag danger, says review
The study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found problems even with apps considered to be among the highest-quality offerings on the market.
According to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, there are more than 165,000 health apps out there.
"The state of health apps is even worse than we thought," said Dr. James Madara, chief executive of the American Medical Association, who was not involved in the study.
The research team reviewed 137 apps designed for patients with serious ongoing health problems, including asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
Perhaps most concerning was what happened when doctor reviewers entered information that should have drawn warnings from the app — like selecting "yes" when the app asked if the user was feeling suicidal, or entering extremely abnormal levels for blood sugar levels.