Research at University of Virginia: “When Health Apps Offer Conflicting Advice”

Important work!
From the University of Virginia:

John Stankovic wants to make smartphone health applications talk to each other to keep people safe and healthy.
Stankovic, BP America Professor in the University of Virginia’s Department of Computer Science, has received a National Science Foundation grant as part of a program to envision “smart and connected cities and communities.” His research aims to make home health care safer, working to eliminate conflicts among medical applications and personal medical devices on which people are increasingly depending.
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Stankovic’s $200,000 grant will fund his research in developing “EyePhy,” a program that will recognize conflicts in health and wellness applications and alert the user.
“EyePhy uses a physiological simulator called ‘HumMod,’ which was developed by the medical community to model the complex interactions of the human physiology using over 7,800 variables,” Stankovic said. He said tests that show individual cyber-physical systems applications are safe cannot guarantee how they will be used and with which other future applications they may run concurrently.
“It is becoming more common for people to use multiple apps,” he said. “The average person may not understand how multiple apps might affect his health due to hidden conflicts among a large number of variables. A tool such as EyePhy is critical to future deployments of safe mobile medical apps.”

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