There are a lot of health and medical apps available in the various app stores. Hundreds of them. Some of them are wonderful tools for tracking, evaluating, and taking control of our personal health. But others can be dangerous, giving you inaccurate or false information that can cause you to make health choices that are needless at best and harmful at worst.
Your Smartphone Can’t Take Your Blood Pressure
You should always be suspicious of medical apps that claim to act as or replace medical devices. Phones simply do not have the technology to be able to read your blood pressure, temperature, oxygen saturation, or pulse with any sort of accuracy.
The Proof
For this article, I downloaded two apps, “Instant Blood Pressure Pro” and “Instant Pulse Oximeter,” to see how they hold up against our FDA-approved equipment here. The results are as follows:
“Instant Blood Pressure Pro”
BP: 125/78
Pulse: 74bpm
Temp: 98.2F
“Instant Pulse Oximeter”
Pulse: 48bpm
SpO2: 95.5%
Actual:
BP: 101/72
Pulse: 66bpm
Temp: 97.3F
SpO2: 98%
These inaccuracies can be incredibly dangerous if someone with, for example, high blood pressure used these apps and were told that their blood pressure was normal. Don’t waste your money on these apps, or any like them.
Always consult your doctor first before trying any new medical app.
Your phone is not a doctor.
