Quick BP Measure

Overall App Summary:

The Quick BP Measure app presents an interesting idea of being able to measure blood pressure using only a smartphone. However, the fact that the app is not validated is concerning as measurements from it may be very inaccurate and lead users into dangerous situations. The app itself states it is inaccurate on its iTunes page which is a good indication it is not ready for use at this time. When trying to actually use it, the app did not work as specified and it was impossible to even get a reading although perhaps it may work better for others. Overall it would be best not to use this app for clinical use or blood pressure monitoring at this time given concerns about the quality of data/reads and trouble with actually using the app. Furthermore, this app should be considered a “medical device” based on FDA’s definition of a medical device, and needs to undergo the appropriate Class II 510k clearance for use a blood pressure monitoring device. Even under FDA Mobile Medical Application guidance, this app would be one where the FDA would, most likely, enforce its regulatory authority. The Quick BP Measure and Monitor app is an unsafe product and does not belong in the app marketplace.

App’s Intended Use:

According to the developers of the Quick BP Measure mobile app, it “lets you measure BP using only your iPhone” – i.e. without the need for a cuff. The Quick BP Measure app is NOT intended to be used to “diagnose, mitigate, treat, or prevent hypertension or hypotension.” It is for recreational use only.

Who’s this app most useful for?

This app is NOT useful and should not be used by anyone, as it is clearly a “recreational use only” app. The app “magically” provides a blood pressure reading using just the iPhone camera without any external devices. If the app were to be validated at some point in the future for accuracy against a traditional blood pressure cuff/ monitor, then, this mobile app would be tremendously useful for any patient with high blood pressure or anyone wanting to check their blood pressure.

How should one use it?

Patients should be very cautious in using this app because there is no data on reliability and validity of the measurements from this app. The app even says “At this time, results may vary for different users and some users may experience inaccurate measurements. Please bear with us as we improve this exciting new technology.” Thus, we would not advise patients to use this app; as there is a real safety risk in misunderstanding and/or misinterpreting the BP measurements reported by the app.

Regulatory Compliance

Not FDA cleared, but eligible under MMA guidance. Also, this mobile app would qualify as a medical device.

Reviewer(s)

Maulik Majmudar

Dr. Maulik Majmudar is a practicing cardiologist and Associate Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital; and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He lectures at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in areas of healthcare innovation & entrepreneurship, as well as medical device design and development. Dr. Majmudar started his career as a medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, completed resident training in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and followed by a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. You can follow him @mmajmudar

Conflicts of Interest:

Employment: Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Consultant/ Advisor: AliveCor, BioFourmis, Cardiogram, EchoSense, Facebook, HUINNO, MC10, Nokia; Ownership: BioFourmis, Cardiogram, HiLabs, Quanttus; Research: EchoSense, GE Healthcare, MIT.

John Torous

Dr. John Torous is a clinical fellow and senior resident in psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts who has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences. He is chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s work group on smartphone apps and has also developed his own smartphone apps for clinical psychiatric research. He has published numerous papers on smartphone apps and app evaluation, and his work has been featured in Scientific American and Nature News. He is editor in chief of JMIR Mental Health, the leading journal for mental health and technology, and co-chair the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society's health information technology committee.

Editor(s)

Adam Landman

Dr. Adam Landman, is an emergency physician and Chief Medical Information Officer at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Dr. Landman holds degrees in information systems and health care policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a medical degree from UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. After medical school, he trained in emergency medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed the RWJ Foundation Clinical Scholars fellowship in health services research, where he worked on qualitative and quantitative studies on the adoption of health information technology (HIT) in the emergency department (ED) and prehospital settings.