Acne "Treatment" Apps for the iPhone Could Be Taking Advantage of Some Patients

This article originally appeared at iMedicalApps.com, part of the HCPLive network.

Getting a new medication or medical device approved in the United States requires embarking on path so nightmarish it makes Dante’s Inferno look like the yellow brick road. And while most clinicians and bureaucrats would agree that we need to find a better way, it’s not hard to imagine how we ended up with such a complex regulatory structure. Going back over 2,000 years to the Hippocratic Oath, the practice of medicine has rested largely on two principles — beneficence and non-maleficence. The latter refers to the idea that we, as clinicians, first do no harm while the former requires that we act foremost in the best interest of the patient. In attempting to uphold these principles, we have created an enormous regulatory structure intended to act as a sieve allowing only those interventions of proven benefit to reach the general public.

I don’t claim its anywhere close to a perfect system. And as there are enormous amounts of money at stake, often involving a very vulnerable group of people, it’s our responsibility to stay vigilant against those who attempt to manipulate the system as well as treatments that are of questionable value. And there are a small group of app developers whose apps may fall into the latter category with claims to treat acne with light — well, that is unless a patient is willing to hold their iPhone to their face for the next 100 years.

To read the entire article, click here.