April 30, 2013 — Everyone seems to be downloading one of the 40,000 apps that are floating around the Internet.

It’s one thing to for a person to download an app to listen to a baseball game on their iPhone, but it’s quite a different question for a physician to select an app that will have life-and-death consequences.

Enter the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA has recently “approved” 75 apps that doctors can use in a responsible manner.

This technology is so new that organizations really haven’t sprung up who can provide a more proper certification for apps.

Today’s discussion is with Dr. David Lee Scher from DLS Healthcare Consulting, Tom Martin from mHiMSS, and Tom Leary, vice president, Government Relations at HiMSS.

The focus is on mobile health applications and federal regulations to insure operability, privacy, security, and appropriate content.

During the interview, Dr. Scher discussed the case he carries around for his cell phone that enables it to do a basic EKG on a person in an emergency.

This data must comply with federal HIPAA regulations, and, soon, must be easily integrated into a Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Martin and Leary highlight ways that the HiMSS organization supports information technology professionals in integrating these apps into a federal and commercial environment.

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