Snapshot of the story

This month Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and Click Therapeutics announced the launch of a new, fully remote clinical trial being conducted on Verily's Project Baseline platform. This RCT, also called the Mirai study, will measure the effectiveness of DTx in reducing symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) among adults prescribed antidepressant monotherapy. Otsuka and Click will collaborate with Verily to provide participating clinicians and patients with the remote monitoring tools needed.

Why this is notable:

• The move closely follows that of Janssen and Koa Health, who partnered at the end of last year to develop digital solutions for treatment-resistant depressive older adults. Their collaboration similarly focused on investigating digital solutions for use as an adjunct in combination with existing prescribed antidepressants, highlighting the growing opportunity for digital-drug interventions and pharma-digital therapeutics collaborations across the mental health space.
• COVID-19 has illustrated a need for digital treatments and fully remote e-clinical trials that go beyond the pill. Digital technologies make a clear case in terms of enhancing the efficiency of trials and providing more meaningful patient insights. In 2000, only 8 clinical trials employed the use of digital health technologies but it is expected that by 2025, 70% of clinical trials will incorporate digital interventions.

Industry Implications:

• Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs) have been getting much attention over the last year due to the need for trial continuity in a world of restricted movement and social distancing. This move is testament to the disruption of the traditional location-centric clinical trial model, a move towards digitally-enabled decentralised trials.
• Currently, reimbursement for participants in trials is one of the main motivating factors, for examples getting their taxi-fare back. New reimbursement/motivational models need to be explored for participants if trials are decentralised.
• A big step by Otsuka: Most implementation of DCTs today is stepwise, introducing decentralized research tools into studies rather than focusing on entirely decentralizing the trial. They seem to have gone all out.

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Expert: Francesca Wuttke (CDO, Almirall) is an expert in clinical trial optimization and digital therapeutics with over 20 years of experience. She contributed to the HealthXL Clinical Trials Optimization with Digital Health report. Connect with Francesca to learn more about RCT for DTx and how to distill scientific and clinical data into commercial value. Connect with Francesca now.

Snapshot of the story

Doctor community Doximity has introduced Dialer, a service through which physicians are able to make HIPAA-compliant calls to patients with their own smartphones, from any location. 70% of U.S. doctors and 45% of all NPs and physician assistants are on Doximity.

Why this is notable:

• Doctors are busy, and providing them with tools where they normally work is the best way to promote usage among this community. Doximity is already actively used by thousands of physicians in the USA everyday. Enabling video call service through it is the simplest way to have these doctors engaged in telehealth.
• In a recent survey, 93% of physicians say Dialer enables them to keep patient visits that may have otherwise been canceled. And 83% of physicians say they have more successful call connections using Doximity Dialer compared to other telehealth solutions.
• It’s straightforward for the patient and doesn’t require any additional setup on the patient side. An interpreter is part of the service too.

Industry Implications:

• From D2C to B2B: Just like a lot of products in digital health, Doximity have taken their service from individual doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses using the service to 150 U.S. health systems that have deployed the Dialer at an enterprise level, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, UC San Diego Health, Fairview Health Services and Loma Linda University Health.
• Hyperactivity: Telehealth has had several milestones in recent months - with Verizon launching BlueJeans Telehealth, Cigna's health services subsidiary Evernorth buying MDLive, Doctor on Demand merging with Grand Rounds, etc.

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Expert: Dr. Keith Grimes (Clinical Innovation Director, Babylon Health) has over 20 years of experience in Primary Care. He has a track record for delivering Digital Medicine as well as working with Clinical Immersive Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Connect with Keith to learn more about physician education and adoption of DTx. Connect with Keith now.

Snapshot of the story

The last month was all about payers. Mid month we saw European insurance giant AXA announce a partnership with Microsoft to develop an international digital health platform. The aim of the collaboration is to develop an “all-in-one” digital platform featuring a self-assessment tool, a personalised medical concierge service for appointment booking, and teleconsultations, along with home care services like medicine delivery. It will also include a directory of healthcare professionals and a digital document vault to store records, with the entire suite operating within Microsoft’s Cloud for Healthcare platform.

Why this is notable:

• The partnership will draw on Microsoft's artificial intelligence capability, securing data-sharing expertise, as well as contacts with other digital health players. This move closely aligns with wider trends across the digital healthcare space including the launch of the HDX (Humana Data Exchange), an API marketplace and a synthetic data Innovation Sandbox created to give end-consumers members power over their own healthcare data in a centralized location. 
• The move also aligns with the current trajectory of the healthcare insurance industry as it supports a cultural shift from reactive financial compensation towards proactive risk mitigation or prevention.
• Next-gen members are holding increasing expectations that both their healthcare providers, and insurers will offer digital wellness solutions. 

Industry Implications:

• Payer engagement in digital healthcare can help connect otherwise siloed components of the healthcare ecosystem. While providers and pharmaceutical companies have begun adopting and incorporating telemedicine applications, CDSS tools and remote patient monitoring, into their workflows, payers have been a little bit slower to join the party.
• Payers are uniquely situated to leverage digital health solutions. Being central to the healthcare ecosystem, payer investment in digital tools and strategic partnerships will allow for increased capitalisation on valuable data, improved integration of member health information and enhanced member engagement.
• Creating a digital health ecosystem can allow payers to take advantage of their position in the epicentre of the healthcare landscape and expand in new directions; fully automating core processes, strengthening partnerships with providers, and creating an interactive and engaging member experience. Is this the beginning of a payer ‘all-in-one’ approach to digital health - ‘care’?

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Expert: Roberto Roitz (Director of Strategic Partnerships, Humana). Connect with Roberto now.