What's the Evidence that Health Apps Work? A Scoping Study of Evidence of Effectiveness for Direct-to-Consumer Apps on the App Store

23 Pages Posted: 15 Jun 2021

See all articles by Jessica Morley

Jessica Morley

University of Oxford - Bennett Institute of Applied Data Science

John Powell

Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

Luciano Floridi

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center; University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies

Date Written: May 22, 2021

Abstract

‘First, do no harm,’ is the cornerstone of contemporary Western medical ethics. The practice of evidence-based medicine supports this principle by advocating for the full and timely publication of all studies examining effectiveness and safety of different interventions and treatments. Given how important robust and valid evidence is to upholding the first-principle, it is surprising that policymakers, regulators and legislators appear to have paid so little heed to the way in which new technologies – particularly digital health interventions (exemplified by health apps which make claims of efficacy) – are changing the value, nature and reliability of medical evidence. Individuals are being encouraged to become ‘empowered’ to manage their own health through the use of often poorly evidenced and barely governed digital health interventions (health apps). This raises questions of trust and has the potential for widespread direct or indirect harm. In order to contribute to this task, the article sets out to establish the baseline quality of evidence available to support the claims made by apps on the Apple App Store. It does so by conducting a scoping study of the evidence available to support a purposive sample of apps on the Apple App Store. The results show that the evidence available to support the claims made by the health apps analysed is often unavailable or of questionable quality. The article concludes with X=number specific actions that should be taken to improve the quality of evidence available for health apps and thus protect individuals and groups from harm.

Keywords: Digital health; digital ethics; medical ethics; health apps; evidence-based medicine

Suggested Citation

Morley, Jessica and Powell, John and Floridi, Luciano, What's the Evidence that Health Apps Work? A Scoping Study of Evidence of Effectiveness for Direct-to-Consumer Apps on the App Store (May 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3851242 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3851242

Jessica Morley (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Bennett Institute of Applied Data Science ( email )

John Powell

Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Luciano Floridi

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center ( email )

85 Trumbull Street
New Haven, CT CT 06511
United States
2034326473 (Phone)

University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies ( email )

Via Zamboni 22
Bologna, Bo 40100
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/luciano.floridi/en

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