JOIN USCan smartphone apps diagnose illnesses?
With a barrage of smartphone health apps being launched globally – claiming to go beyond fitness or calorie checkers and spot mental illnesses or respiratory diseases —health experts stress that such digital applications can never be a replacement for a qualified, well-trained health service provider.
An Australia-based digital health solution provider recently launched an app called ResApp that claims to diagnose respiratory diseases like pneumonia, croup and asthma with high accuracy through a cough into a smartphone.
“Apps may guide a patient to consult an appropriate doctor. However, an app by itself is not adequate to make a diagnosis,”emphasises Dr Vipul Gupta, head, (neurovascular intervention
centre) at Medanta-The Medicity, “Diagnosis of a medical condition is made by detailed history and examination followed by investigations. This expertise is gained after several years of training and a digital app is not a replacement at all,” he adds.
Gupta is soon going to launch an app called Stroke and Neurointervention — being developed with the non-profit Stroke and Neurovascular Intervention Foundation where he is one of the
founder members.
The app will provide information to people about stroke awareness, prevention and treatment options. “The app will also have an emergency number to call. It will regularly update doctors about current treatments, latest advances and protocols and provide expert opinion
on medical cases,”Dr Gupta told IANS.
When it comes to health apps, experts say that trust in health care cannot be created by answering merely a set of questions and getting an instant diagnosis as the variables are too high to be included in a single app.