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10 IPCLJ 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/ipclj10 and id is 1 raw text is: THE DIGITAL DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP: IMPOSING HEIGHTENED DUTIES ON FEMTECH APPS Kevin Frazier* INTRODUCTION Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.1 Not all apps are created equal. Users have drastically different relationships with the developers of the flip a coin app (which does exactly what its name suggests and enjoys a 4.5-star rating based on nearly 2,000 reviews)2 than with the developers of femtech apps, which target individuals seeking services and information related to reproductive health, among other topics.3 The law should not ignore the differences in those relationships. A failure to adjust the legal relationship between femtech apps and users may leave users with too few means to protect their significant privacy interests over sensitive health information. Femtech apps, akin to medical providers, collect a range of reproductive health information from users and offer medical advice to * Emerging Technology and Democracy Fellow, Leadership Center for AG Studies. Adjunct Professor, Delaware Law. Affiliated Scholar in Emerging Technology and Constitutional Law, St. Thomas University College of Law. 1. Schloendorff v. Soc'y of N.Y. Hosp., 105 N.E. 92, 93 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1914). 2. Flip a Coin App Ratings and Reviews, APP STORE, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flip-a-coin- app/id898035102 (last visited Nov. 13, 2024). 3. Kaitlyn Tiffany, Period-tracking apps are not for women, VOX (Nov. 16, 2023), https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/13/18079458/menstrual-tracking-surveillance-glow-clue- apple-health; see Catriona McMillan, Monitoring Female Fertility Through 'Femtech': The Need for a Whole-System Approach to Regulation, MED. L. REV. 410, 414 (2022) (The femtech industry includes a wide range of technologies that visualise female sexual and reproductive processes, from tracking one's menstrual cycle in a calendar app to real-time guidance for 'kegel' exercises. While some types of femtech go beyond the realms of the womb, the majority of it focuses on and around reproduction and fertility- related processes.). 1

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