Senator Tolentino filed a bill seeking to regulate contact tracing apps and health-related apps in the Philippines.
Senator Francis Tolentino had filed a bill seeking to regulate contact tracing apps and other health-related mobile applications.
Also, as Senate Bill No. 1888 sought to amend existing laws to include health applications and digital platforms in the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to Tolentino, mobile applications and software had been useful in boosting health and well-being and also providing valuable health-related information, especially amidst the pandemic.
Tolentino also mentioned that the contact tracing apps which had been a “key public health intervention” against the COVID-19 outbreak in different countries.
In the Philippines, the contact tracing application StaySafe.ph was launched as the government’s official contact tracing program.
In the said bill, Tolentino mentioned that those applications or ‘apps’, which were easily downloadable and readily available in app stores, addressed a wide variety of health-related aspects — including sleep, nutrition, stress management, physical exercise, and medication reminders.
Tolentino also said that those apps were convenient, affordable, and easily accessible to consumers.
READ ALSO: Total COVID-19 Cases In PH Already At 388,137
He added that there’s an “urgent need” to ensure that these apps also complied with standards as provided by existing laws and regulations as these mobile apps became an integral part of the medical sector.
Under Senate Bill No. 1888, health softwares and applications should be covered under the “medical devices” to be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration under the Republic Act No. 3720, as amended by Republic Act No. 9711.
Health software and applications may include apps that calculated medicine doses, diagnosed a medical condition or disease, prescribed cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of diseases, and also apps that determine contact with an infected person as well.
“If software and mobile medical applications remain unregulated, the diagnosis, treatment, or prescription of medicines through these applications could potentially result in life-threatening consequences. Moreover, without proper licensing and registration, claims against medical malpractice and civil liabilities could be painstaking and difficult”, Tolentino said.
The said bill had been referred to the Senate Committee on Health for deliberation.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health had recorded 987 newly-reported cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as of 4:00 p.m. of November 4, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 388,137.
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