Apps in the news: Success and failure

Many developers and innovators are working on a wide variety of apps to improve healthcare and lower costs. Some have seen impressive success while others are running afoul of federal regulators.

POC Advisor, an app designed to reduce the rate of sepsis incidents, mortalities and readmissions, has been in use in a pilot project with great results. At Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, Ala., the rate of sepsis mortality decreased by more than 50 percent and readmissions by 30 percent.

Wolters Kluwer Health developed the app which allows for real-time integration of vital signs and labs into the hospital’s IT systems. Alerts are then pushed to handheld devices.

The company plans to share its success and strategy for future growth at the 2015 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Chicago in April.

Meanwhile, companies that claimed their apps detect melanoma have reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in response to charges of unsupported and unsubstantiated claims.  

The agency said the states marketers of MelApp and Mole Detective acted deceptively in claiming the apps can detect melanoma symptoms based on photographs a consumer uploads to the app. Two of the four companies involved with the apps have agreed to stop making unsupported and unsubstantiated claims.

"Truth in advertising laws apply in the mobile marketplace," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in an FTC announcement. "App developers and marketers must have scientific evidence to support any health or disease claims that they make for their apps."

New Consumer Solutions, owned by Kristi Kimball, developed Mole Detective in January 2012. U.K.-based marketing company, L Health, owned by Avrom Lasarow, began marketing the app online, in August 2012. The app was sold in the Apple and Google stores for as much as $4.99.

FTC's settlement with New Consumer Solutions prohibits the vendor from claiming an app can detect or diagnose melanoma unless the claim is supported by "competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing of the device." It also prohibits the company from making misleading or unsubstantiated health claims about a product or service, and includes a $3,930 fine. The FTC is pursuing a litigated judgment against non-settling defendants Lasarow and his company.

Health Discovery began marketing MelApp online in 2011 and selling it for $1.99. The company's FTC settlement includes the same stipulations cited in New Consumer Solutions's settlement, prohibiting Health Discovery from making any other misleading or unsubstantiated claims about a device's health benefits or efficacy, and includes a $17,963 fine.