October 8, 2013
With the advancements in technology that continue to pop up through smartphone and tablet applications, it comes as no surprise the uses for these products have spread into the medical field. Now, a smartphone can be used to screen blood sugar levels or to do home sonograms and estimates show a 25 percent growth in the market occurring in the near future. However, the Defective Medical Device Attorneys with the law firm of Ferrer Poirot Feller Daniel point out that many officials felt a lack of guidelines regulating these products may have been putting patients’ health at risk.
This belief prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop a set of rules governing how these products should be tested and marketed to consumers. The agency states that any app that is used as an accessory to a regulated medical device or any app that turns a mobile platform into a regulated medical device will fall under the category of technology the FDA will oversee. Any device that is used as a personal medical record keeper will not be regulated by the agency. So far, the FDA has cleared more than 100 mobile medical apps as safe and acceptable for use.
The law firm’s team of Product Liability Lawyers applauds the efforts being made to improve patient safety and is hopeful the new regulations are successful in achieving this goal.