MASSDEVICE ON CALL — The FDA will meet this month to consider the role the agency will play in mobile medical technologies and patient-driven screening and diagnostics.
The agency forecasts that patients will soon have access to technologies that allow them to self-screen for diseases or conditions via stand-alone kiosks or wireless diagnostic tools like blood pressure readers and blood glucose readers.
Using their own readings gathered from diagnostic apps or devices, patients may be able to determine on their own whether they need a certain medication, or may be able to take their readings to a pharmacist who can meet the prescription without a doctor signature.
"Eliminating or reducing the number of routine visits could free up prescribers to spend time with more seriously ill patients, reduce the burdens on the already overburdened health care system, and reduce health care costs," the agency wrote in a meeting notice in the Federal Register.
The federal watchdog agency plans to meet on questions of handling and regulation and whether certain drugs merit over-the-counter status in light of at-home diagnostic tools at a meeting this Thursday and Friday, according to MobiHealthNews.
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