Lawmaker Pitches New FDA Office Of Mobile Health

There are already tens of thousands of mobile health applications available for download on smart phones and tablets, allowing consumers to do anything from count calories to monitor their blood sugar level and fight depression. But it can be hard to know which ones actually deliver on their health claims and provide accurate information. The Food and Drug Administration, the agency in charge of regulating mobile health apps, has evaluated a few apps so far, but it still has not made clear which apps will require approval. Some app developers have raised concerns about whether the FDA can keep up with the fast-paced innovations of Silicon Valley. But a bill set to be introduced in the House of Representatives later this month aims to smooth the agency’s evaluation process. The Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act (HIMTA) would establish a special Office of Mobile Health at the FDA to provide recommendations on mobile health app issues. It would also create a mobile health developer support program at the Department of Health and Human Services to help app developers make sure they are operating within privacy regulations, including the federal law HIPAA that sets privacy standards.