Health apps raising questions

The healthcare industry has been undergoing huge transformation and has faced some unprecedented challenges. Healthcare apps development was one of the answers, providing some innovative solutions that streamlined some healthcare business processes during challenging times.

Innovation in healthcare has led app development to become both a necessity as well as a luxury. Smartphone apps designed to monitor patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease etc. may help reduce health care costs in the long run. Digital healthcare is the application of digital transformation to the healthcare industry.

A report says, 88% of such apps were tracking identifiers and cookies to track user activities on mobile devices and at least 28% of health apps did not provide any sort of privacy statement on Google Play about what was being collected. The fitness app market was almost stagnating before the pandemic.

The market for fitness has split between trackers and agnostic fitness platforms, which let users dictate timing and intensity and personalized programs for the user. Fitness apps were downloaded more than 400 million times in 2021.

Generally, digital health makes care delivery more focused on patients and prevention, with the help of artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and many more. Healthcare technological advancements are enabling people to stay on top of their health. Now more and more Indians are using health apps to check their health information and track their fitness progress than ever before.

Apple, Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, and other technology companies have been launching wearable devices and mobile apps in order to help users track their personal health data. These health apps not only inform people about their heart rate, oxygen level, blood pressure, sugar level, asthma, and other vital information, but they also help people track their sleep patterns, water intake, work productivity, and a variety of other activities.

Consumers may not realize that the way third-party apps choose to use their health data is largely up to individual companies rather than predetermined regulations. Phishing is the most prevalent cybersecurity threat in healthcare. Hackers regularly browse the dark web to gain access to confidential accounts and data, or they use the platform to sell sensitive information.

Because healthcare is a valuable and vulnerable target, hackers go after healthcare because patient data and hospital systems are lucrative prey. Hackers know they can demand a high ransom if they compromise patient data or healthcare systems.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA