In a speech delivered at the AMA's recent annual meeting, CEO James Madara described the digital health industry as peddling apps and devices that "impede care, confuse patients, and waste our time." Without naming names, he referenced ineffective electronic medical records, direct-to-consumer digital health products, and apps of "mixed quality." He declared, "This is the digital snake oil of the early 21st century."
The author of this article, "Is It Fair To Call Digital Health Apps Today's 'Snake Oil'?", has a look at Madara's comments and their inspiration. She offers these categories for health apps: wellness (weight loss apps, fitness trackers) and IT (tools for browsing health insurance options, medical record systems); regulated medical devices (FDA-approved cardiac-event recorders, apps for measuring real-time blood loss, clinical decision support tools); and the "gray area" stuff in between (some diagnostic tests).
"Federal agencies, most notably the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), started seriously paying attention to the apps that lack scientific support to back up claims for products that claim to prevent or treat health or disease-related conditions. But it wasn't until the high-profile crackdown on Theranos, the much-hyped blood testing company, that the digital health industry came under fire."
I admit that I have a hard look at who developed an app before I trust it, whether it's an app meant to help women in domestic violence situations or apps to help people garden or whatever - just because it's an app doesn't automatically mean it's been created by people that have the necessary expertise to advise. For instance, iBipolar advised people in the middle of a manic episode to drink hard liquor to help them to sleep, and another, called What is Biopolar Disorder, suggested that bipolar disorder could be contagious. Neither app seems to be available any more.
Also see "Mental Health: There's an App for That: Smartphone apps claim to help conditions from addiction to schizophrenia, but few have been thoroughly tested""