The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has indicated in the past that under certain circumstances the iPhone may be considered a medical device and therefore regulated as one, however, as of February the FDA still hadn’t figured out exactly which circumstances those might be.
Turns out Apple isn’t waiting around for the FDA. iPhone application developer and GraniteKey COO Mike Ahmadi wrote in to point out that Apple’s iPhone developer agreement includes a special section that puts the regulatory onus, in particular the duty of ensuring FDA compliance, on the developers themselves.
Obviously this section of the agreement has become increasingly important since Apple began promoting connected peripheral devices and medical apps like LifeScan’s glucometer and AirStrip’s cardiac monitoring application at the company’s iPhone 3.0 and World Wide Developer Conference events.
Under the developer agreement section labeled “Regulatory Compliance for Health, Medical and Related Apps,” Apple writes: “You agree that You will not seek any regulatory marketing permissions or make any determinations that may result in any Apple products being deemed regulated or that may impose any obligations or limitations on Apple. By submitting Your Application to Apple for selection for distribution via the App Store, You represent and warrant that You are in full compliance with any applicable laws, regulations, and policies, including but not limited to all FDA laws, regulations and policies….”
Read on for the entire section related to regulatory compliance for health and medical apps. Keep reading>>
What’s old is new again? Continua Health Alliance certified Nonin’s Bluetooth-enabled fingertip pulse oximeter as the first, interoperable wireless health device. Nonin’s USB-enabled pulse oximeter was the very first (and only other) Continua-certified device. 
“Pioneers get the arrows,” as the saying goes. I much prefer: “Pioneers get arrows in their back.” Being early in a market is great — if the market is ready for you.
Doctors “know instinctively that the human side of medicine — the attentive listening, the visual cues, the continued eye contact, and the careful history and physical exam — is critical…” Dr. Val Jones, CEO of Better Health, wrote in a commentary piece last week. “The problem we have with EMRs is that they often interrupt the sensitive and intuitive parts of what we do. EMRs and other digital ‘tools’ designed to make our work more efficient, may do so at the expense of the human connectedness our patients deserve and need.”