'Misleading' top grossing health app removed from App Store
Instant Blood Pressure Monitor, one of the highest grossing health apps, has been removed from Apple's App Store. The app claimed to be able to measure blood pressure and heart rate by holding the smartphones microphone to the user's chest and finger on the camera. After iMedicalApps reached out to the developers, a disclaimer was added to the apps store paging stating the app should only be used for recreational purposes, but still thousands of users were misled and believed they were receiving accurate results.&nbsp;
One of the highest grossing health apps, Instant Blood Pressure Monitor, has finally been taken out of the App Store. If you keep up with iMedicalApps, you’re well aware of the issues we had with the app. The Instant Blood Pressure app promised to measure your blood pressure using your iPhone’s microphone pressed up against your heart, and your finger on the camera. The app had already been removed from the Google Play store a few months ago.

We’ve received emails and complaints from several academics and physicians who were concerned how this app was being utilized.

Initially, the app didn’t even have a disclaimer in it when it was launched. Only when we reached out to the developers and told them of our concerns did the disclaimers of how the app should only be used for “recreational” purposes come up.



But even with these disclaimers the app was one of the top 5 grossing health apps in the US App Store for several months, garnering thousands of reviews from users who stated how they were using the app for actual blood pressure recordings — terrifying.

Our issue with the development team, Auralife, was never with the “novel” way the app purported to measure blood pressure. Rather, it was the lack of transparency and lack of granular data they provided — critical if you create something different like this.

Compare them to Opternative, a digital health product that has come up with a novel way to do prescription eye exams. They use a smartphone and a laptop to deliver a prescription for your glasses and contacts from your home. They registered their product with the FDA and backed it up with an IRB clinical trial. Opternative still has detractors who are critical of their overall methods, but at least they are going through the right channels.

Opternative didn’t go for the easy buck. Rather, they had a novel idea, and knew if they wanted to make it legitimate they had to approach things the right way.

That’s something the developers of Instant Blood Pressure app didn’t do.