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September 07, 2010

Stethoscope iPhone App Appeals to Doctors But Not Regulators


According to a recent article in The Guardian, more than 3 million physicians have already downloaded the iPhone (News - Alert) application called iStethoscope. The popular mhealth app can be used to monitor patients’ heartrates, replacing a traditional stethoscope. Peter Bentley, the inventor of iStethoscope, recently introduced a free version of the app which is being downloaded by more than 500 users a day.

Bentley, a researcher from University College London, originally developed the app as “a fun toy.” However, he says, “everybody is very excited about the potential of the adoption of mobile phone technology into the medical workplace, and rightly so." He noted that "smartphones are incredibly powerful devices packed full of sensors, cameras, high-quality microphones with amazing displays. They are capable of saving lives, saving money and improving healthcare in a dramatic fashion – and we carry these massively powerful computers in our pockets."

However, according to Bentley, regulatory prohibitions relating to medical devices are hindering efforts to exploit the full potential of smartphone medical apps. “It's much easier to develop technology than it is to get permission to use it," he said. "I could create a mobile ultrasound scanner and an application to measure the oxygen content in blood, but the regulations stop me. We're not allowed to turn the phone itself into a medical device, and what that precisely means is currently a grey area in terms of regulation. That's the only reason we're not seeing a flood of these devices yet."


Ms. Graham is a writer and editor with a current focus on health and wellness. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Monda
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