Telehomecare vs The Wild West

Who could have imagined, even a few years ago, that holding a fingertip to your mobile phone screen would tell you your blood pressure? Yet, today, you can buy any one of a number of apps that does just that. There’s only one problem. You’re most likely not getting an accurate blood pressure reading. “Not ready for prime time,” is how Dr. Nilay Kumar described the technology to Reuters Health last month. Kumar is an attending physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Mass., and a Harvard Medical School instructor. He’s lead author on a study that analyzed the top 107 apps for “hypertension” and “high blood pressure”. Most – about 75 per cent – were found to...