REMOTE PATIENT MONITOR
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) though by no means a new care modality is evolving rapidly, spurred by the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding regulatory push to expand access to care.
In its simplest form, RPM involves the use of connected electronic tools to record personal health and medical data in one location that is reviewed by a provider at a different location. The data may or may not be viewed as soon as it is transmitted.
Increasingly, health systems are leveraging RPM to care for patients suffering from a myriad of conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and COVID-19. In addition, regulatory changes enacted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have bolstered this trend, indicating that RPM is becoming an important part of care delivery.
Artificial Intelligence in Medical Devices
As technology advances, medical device companies are developing AI medical devices that serve three main functions:
- Chronic disease management Medical devices with artificial intelligence could monitor patients and deliver treatment or medication as needed. For example, diabetes patients could wear sensors to monitor their blood sugar levels and administer insulin to regulate them.
- Medical imaging Companies are developing medical devices with artificial intelligence to conduct medical imaging with better image quality and clarity. These devices would also reduce a patient’s exposure to radiation.
- Internet of Things (IoT) Internet of things for medical devices is a system of wireless, interrelated, and connected digital devices used by medical professionals to manage data, keep patients informed, reduce costs, monitor patients, and work more effectively and efficiently. Companies are using IoT in collaboration with medical devices with artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes.
Digital Therapeutics
Digital therapeutics (DTx) are a digital health category defined by the Digital Therapeutics Alliance as products that “deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions to patients that are driven by high quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease.”1 DTx are distinct from digital medicines or “smart pills,” which combine a prescription medication with an ingestible sensor that is designed to communicate with a software application to track compliance.
Advances in and the increasingly dominant role of mobile technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives have broadened the role of DTx in healthcare. Although, historically, interest in developing DTx was mainly confined to academia and technology companies, the potential to use DTx in conjunction with medicines to improve health outcomes has sparked the interest of big pharma, who have started to venture into the DTx space through investments and strategic partnerships with tech companies.2 This exciting advancement will create opportunities to increase patients’ awareness of their health and their ability to play a more active role in managing their disease, thereby creating the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce the demands on healthcare systems compared to traditional pharmacological interventions alone.3,4 The DTx market is expected to grow tenfold in the next three to five years, with a projected market value of $9 billion (USD) by 2025.5 However, this presents challenges in terms of how the technology is regulated, how healthcare providers (HCP) respond to this paradigm shift, and how these technologies are reimbursed.
In this article, we will review the trends in the development of DTx over the past decade, the current landscape, future prospects, and some of the challenges faced by companies looking to commercialize DTx applications.
