Should We Better Stick to Pen and Paper? An Empirical Investigation on Functionality, Privacy and Data-Security of Physiotherapy Telehealth Applications

Maul, Lukas; Kramer, Ines; Rettinger, Lena; Werner, Franz

doi:10.3233/SHTI240018

Abstract

Background:

Telehealth and mHealth apps become increasingly popular in health professions such as physiotherapy calling for increased awareness on functionality, privacy, and data security.

Objectives:

This work presents a functionality, privacy, and data-security evaluation of four telehealth services commonly used in physiotherapy.

Methods:

We examined functionality and features, data protection, privacy implementations and data-security with a questionnaire and performed an in-depth investigation of the services.

Results:

Privacy and security relevant findings such as use of outdated webservers, problems with certificate renewal as well as questionable GDPR compliance were reported.

Conclusion:

Due to the privacy and security relevant findings in this analysis it can be concluded that there is a need for improvement in design, development, operation as well as regulation of telehealth apps and services.