How Big a Loophole is “Wellness”?

The medical app and regulatory pot is being stirred as products continue to appear, including those with questionable FDA credentials, or lack of credentials. As discussed in our earlier posts on apps regulation (here and here), an app is a medical device if its meets the congressionally mandated and FDA enforced definition of a medical device as something whose intended use “is for the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or is intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man”.  As stated in the FDA’s Draft Guidance, omitted from this definition, and therefore not medical devices, are apps “that are solely used to log, record, track, evaluate, or make decisions or suggestions related to developing or maintaining general health and wellness.” Some manufacturers have identified this health and wellness exception as fertile ground for asserting that their product falls within this exception, and therefore is free of FDA before-market scrutiny. In some cases this ground is plowed in the form of an express disclaimer, even though such a disclaimer may not be particularly credible. For example Brad Thompson, in a post for MD&DI cites the example of a urinalysis phone app and hardware system that includes the disclaimer that the device “is intended to be used for health and wellness information purposes and as a demonstration of technology. It is not i...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Tags: Business Planning Standards & Regulatory Source Type: blogs