科技讓生活更美好:健康APP真的有用嗎?

There are more than 1,000 health smartphone/tablet apps released every month. You can use them to measure your mood, track your menstrual cycle (to determine your fertile period) and monitor your glucose levels. Last year the Department of Health suggested that GPs should start prescribing them.
每個月有超過1000款健康智能手機/平板電腦應用程序發佈。您可以使用它們來檢測你的情緒、跟蹤你的月經週期(來確定你的育齡期)以及監控你的血糖水平。去年，衛生部建議普通開業醫生應該開始對其開處方。

But you shouldn't confuse a health app with your doctor. For a start, they aren't regulated – in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has been working on guidelines, but in the UK the MHRA only regulates medical devices, which excludes most apps – and are of varying quality.
但是你不應該把你的醫生與健康應用混淆。首先，他們沒有受到監管——在美國，食品和藥物管理局一直致力於準則，但在英國藥監機構只監管醫療設備，包括大多數應用程序——且質量不一。

They can also be harmful. This week a research paper published in the Archives of Dermatology looked at four smartphone apps designed to help people diagnose their skin lesions as benign moles or melanomas. It showed that the accuracy of the apps in identifying lesions that were melanomas varied between 6.8% and 98.1%. The best results were with an app that sent the image of the lesion directly to a board-certified dermatologist for analysis. The worst ones used automatic algorithms to analyse images.
他們也可能是有害的。本週，發表在《皮膚病學檔案》上的研究論文着眼於四款旨在幫助人們診斷皮膚病變是良性的痣還是黑素瘤的智能手機應用程序。它表明應用程序確定病變是黑素瘤的準確性在6.8%到98.1%之間變化。最好的結果是通過應用程序直接把病變圖片發送到急診室進行分析。最糟糕的是用自動算法來分析圖像。

The solution
解決辦法

Smartphone apps can be brilliant but where health is concerned you should be realistic. No app as yet can cure you of a disease. An investigation by the New England Centre for Investigative Reporting found that out of 1,500 health apps, more than one in five claimed to cure or treat medical problems. Nearly half relied on cellphone sound for treatment, others used light and a couple opted for vibrations. The investigation said that scientists were clear that none of these methods could help the conditions they were sold for.
智能手機應用程序可以是睿智的，但困擾你的健康問題應該是實際的。至今還沒有應用程序能治好你的病。新英格蘭調查中心的調查報道發現1500款健康應用程序中超過五分之一聲稱能治癒或治療醫療問題。近一半回答說依靠手機聲音進行治療，其他則使用光，一些選擇了振動。調查說科學家們清楚任何一種方法都不能成爲幫助他們賣出去的條件。

Last year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined the manufacturers of two mobile applications for claiming they could cure acne. The marketers of AcneApp said that a study in the British Journal of Dermatology showed blue and red light treatments (such as were emitted from their app) eliminated bacteria and reduced skin blemishes from acne by 76%. No wonder more than 11,000 people bought it from the iTunes store. The FTC said the study did not prove the light treatment worked and consumers who were holding their phones to their faces for a few minutes each day were wasting their time and $1.99 (£1.25).
去年聯邦貿易委員會(FTC)對兩個聲稱他們可以治療痤瘡的移動應用程序製造商進行了罰款。AcneApp銷售商說《英國皮膚病學》雜誌上的一項研究顯示藍紅光療法(如他們的應用程序發出的)可以消除痤瘡76%的細菌和減少皮膚瑕疵。難怪有超過11000人從iTunes商店購買了它。美國聯邦貿易委員會說這項研究並沒有證明光療有效，消費者拿着他們的手機每天花幾分鐘對着自己的臉是在浪費自己的時間和1.99美元(1.25英鎊)。

If you do want to use a health app, go for well-known health brands (eg organisations such as the NHS, Red Cross, etc). Apps to track dieting that are produced by established weight loss companies are often good. Otherwise check who the authors are, how often it is updated and if it is referenced.
如果你真的想使用一個健康應用程序，選一些知名的健康品牌(比如英國國家醫療服務體系、紅十字會等組織)。由減肥企業開發的跟蹤飲食的應用程序通常是好的。否則檢查開發者是誰，多久更新以及它是否有說明。

Meanwhile, doctors may be using apps to support their decision making even more than patients. A 2012 survey of UK doctors found that nearly 20% have a work-related app.
與此同時，醫生甚至可能比病人更會使用應用程序來支持他們的決策。2012年對英國醫生的一項調查發現近20%的人有一個工作應用程序。