Technology continues to control how healthcare is administered and delivered. This has made software an increasingly crucial component for highly sophisticated medical devices.
Digitization of healthcare has endowed consumers with more capabilities to take informed decisions. Now with more advancements, digital health has forayed into platforms that provides evidence-based medical solutions. It utilizes both hardware and software solutions and services such as telemedicine, web-based analysis, mobile devices and applications and the likes. But these are applications that can falter to give results which may not be accurate.
Enter Digital Therapeutics - a category of digital health solutions that combines technology and tools to provide evidence-based software-driven therapeutic interventions. With the convergence of software and healthcare, this new breed of medical sciences is helping to transform patient care and deliver better clinical outcomes. The following image illustrates how rising awareness is supporting the emerging markets for DTx.
Gadgets for medical intervention
What is worth noting is the fast-growing mHealth market for life sciences and the software products used massively in the treatment of medical conditions. For example, treating children with special disabilities through video-based games improves their learning abilities.
These methods have caught the attention of many for preventing or curing diseases using digital gadgets. Other examples include management of chronic diseases where DTx has intervened to prevent, detect, manage or treat diseases (mental health, cognition, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, respiratory and many others).
Certain DTx therapies are associated with the intake of medicines or the use of medical devices that require consumables (e.g., glucose test strips). The software allows companies to monitor the actual consumption of these products, which easily helps them to identify when a person runs short on their supplies. The application would then suggest a reorder to be shipped directly to their doorstep.
In 2021, the number of people using digital therapeutics is expected to reach 44 million. Almost double the number of users in 2020. Digital therapeutics are healthcare treatments which include interactions with software and directly enhance medical outcomes. Due to their use as a medical treatment, this area only includes those products and devices which have sought validation in clinical trials.
Innovative presence helps DTx gain market attention
For businesses dealing in pharma and medical technology, digital therapeutics presents a way to differentiate products. It comes with a relatively low capital investment, especially compared to the research and development costs associated with a drug or medical device.
Digital therapeutics offers an opportunity to extend product life cycles, segregate products in development, and fill in any gaps in the market for traditional medicine. Such advancements also propel the market. It showcases the capability to address the unmet needs of patients. The companies that leverage it to address these gaps, blended with the faster product development timelines have been a major market driver. With more awareness, the medical fraternity is encouraging people to opt for digital therapeutics for preventive causes, thus promoting its growth in the market.
Contactless – the perfect digital answer
In the wake of the current pandemic, people are not just attracted towards virtual medication, but also demanding it. The need for social distancing and fear of infection had forced people to go contactless and give preference to tele medication instead of actual physical visit to the hospital. In such a scenario, DTx seems to be the perfect answer to guide the patients and provide the treatment digitally. The easy accessibility of treatment, medicine, and prevention will help itself for its adoption and people will integrate it into their lives.
Benefits of digital therapeutics for every stakeholder
Consumers
- Receive evidence-based, personalized care programs
- Improved access to care for people especially from rural and remote areas
- Increases adherence to treatment
- Empowers patients to become self -sufficient
Payers
- Reduce cost of care by reducing further progression of medical problem
- Increase sales by improving patient experience
- Bring down the volume of claims improving health outcome
- Identify cost-efficient solutions and provide tailored care plans
Provider
- Monitor patients real-time
- Identify the gaps in care and provide timely interventions
- Improve efficiency of care delivery through evidence-based care therapies
- Reduce frequent intervention of physician in managing patients with chronic conditions
Distributors
- Screen the effectiveness of the drugs
- Track the demand for varied drugs in different geographies
- Resourcefully manage their supply chain
The next big leap
DTx is now paving way for a different breed of medical enablers. A swelling number of pharma businesses are taking a considerate approach towards digital health. Health experts are also identifying the potential and encouraging innovations. The efforts are still rising in the companies endorsing DTx. Stakeholders, and regulators, growing research and development investment will undoubtedly show the enormous probable impact in the coming years.
Globally, health bodies such as the FDA and EU's incoming MDR are penning regulatory frameworks to ensure safety and efficacy for DTx. Regulators are looking for newer ways to preserve the dynamic nature of digital therapeutics that allows them to go through iterative improvements. At the same time, regulations are also looking at appropriate application of SaMD (Software as Medical Device) regulation to ensure patient safety.
Cybage as a strategic collaborator
Cybage has collaborated with leading healthcare innovators to solve many pieces of the healthcare puzzle impacting clinical outcomes, patient experience, and cost.
Adapting the new gen healthcare services approach, we are offering a compelling mix of vast healthcare industry exposure with a strong product engineering expertise. Our services are compliant with strongest data security and privacy regulations like HIPAA, GDPR.
Further Readings-
