House lawmakers to examine regulation of medical apps

House lawmakers said that they will conduct a three-day series of hearings next week to look at how the Food and Drug Administration should regulate medical applications on smartphones and tablets.

Lawmakers from the House Commerce committee will look specifically at how regulation affects patients, physicians and developers looking to capi¬tal¬ize on the growing field of mobile health and medical apps. The hearings follow a letter the committee sent to the FDA earlier this month, in which lawmakers questioned whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could allow the FDA to define smartphones and tablets with health-related apps as “medical devices” — and levy new taxes on developers and smartphone makers under the health-care law.