Instant Blood Pressure App Pose Risk to People With Hypertension, Study Says

Experts suggest people should be cautious in trusting app available online. That was after a recent study which showed a certain Instant Blood Pressure app made by AuraLife brought risk to its users.

The app was made to be an automatic way to measure a person's blood pressure rate. It required its users to hold the smartphone with the downloaded app close in their chest while placing the index finger just in front of the gadget's camera, as stated by Med Scape. "If Instant Blood Pressure worked, it would be a revolutionary new technology that would allow for low-cost screening and management of hypertension among smartphone users," said Dr. Timothy Plante of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the expert who has led the study.

But as to the U.S. study, the app has underestimated hypertension and overestimated low blood pressure, as posted by Fox News. The result also revealed four out of five people experienced inaccurate results which suggest that their blood pressure rates was in its non-hypertensive range when in fact it is actually high.  

Ryan Archdeacon, CEO and co-founder of AuraLife, has stated that the study has conducted several issues which "render it invalid." Issues include the multiple updating of the app during the whole study period and then improving the accuracy of the results by 30 percent.

Archdeacon also said the "Instant Blood Pressure is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose disease, including hypertension." In fact, the app was not designed to measure irregularity of the blood pressure rate which is above 158 mmHg systolic or 99mmHg diastolic.

The Instant Blood Pressure app has the potential to help people especially those who are suffering from hypertension. But the technology still needs to be updated and improved. "While the promise of mobile health in revolutionizing hypertension treatment is enormous, BP measurement using a smartphone is still in its developmental stages," said Nilay Kumar, a researcher at Harvard University.