Security News > 2022 > May > Is that health app safe to use? A new framework aims to provide an answer
A new framework for assessing the privacy, technical security, usability and clinical assurance and safety of digital health technologies has been created by the American College of Physicians, the American Telemedicine Association and ORCHA, the Organization for the Review of Care and Health Applications.
The Digital Health Assessment Framework is intended to be an open framework, accessible for anyone to use, to support the adoption of high-quality digital health technologies and help healthcare professionals and patients make better-informed decisions about which digital health tools - including mobile apps and web-based tools - best suit their needs.
With more than 86 million Americans already using a health or fitness app, digital health brings new possibilities for the healthcare industry.
"There are literally hundreds of health apps and devices for patients and clinicians to choose from, and our goal is to provide confidence that the health and wellness tools reviewed in this Framework meet quality, privacy and clinical assurance criteria in the U.S.," noted Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA. ORCHA has already assessed a number of products against the framework, and the ACP has announced the launch of a pilot test of a database of digital health tools reviewed against the framework.
"While a high scoring app is not guaranteed to be effective or safe or a poorly scoring app is not necessarily ineffective or unsafe, it does mean that the app has taken more or less care over the apps compliance with these key standards than other similar apps," the organizations involved said.
"In the critical area of health and care, we believe that developers should take compliance with standards extremely seriously. No matter how good the user experience of an app might be, if the app is not safe and robust or its treatment of often sensitive health data is not clear and correct, it should be treated with caution."