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The Convergence of Digital Health Technologies: The Role of Digital Therapeutics in the Future Healthcare System
Published in Oleksandr Sverdlov, Joris van Dam, Digital Therapeutics, 2023
Joris van Dam, Justin Wright, Graham Jones
Digital Therapeutics are high-quality, clinically validated software applications to prevent, manage, or treat a medical condition.2 These software applications can take the form of an App running on a smartphone or mobile device; they can be applications running on a Virtual Reality headset; they can be firmware applications programmed into a dedicated digital therapeutic device—they are any instance where the software is the “active ingredient” that is providing the therapeutic intervention.
Digital Therapeutics
Published in Gia Merlo, Kathy Berra, Lifestyle Nursing, 2023
Patricia M. Davidson, Caleb Ferguson, Michelle Patch
Digital therapeutics have the potential to improve health outcomes. Ensuring nurses have the knowledge, skills, and competencies to create, apply, and evaluate DTx is critical for advancing healthcare. Moreover, it is critically important that nurses generate research questions and are actively engaged in research.
Digital Health Technology for Behavior Change
Published in James M. Rippe, Lifestyle Medicine, 2019
Jeffrey Krauss, Patricia Zheng, Courtenay Stewart, Mark Berman
To distinguish digital therapeutics from health apps, digital therapeutics companies tend to carry out clinical tests and sometimes seek regulatory approvals. The first FDA approval was in 2013 for a prescription mobile diabetes program, and the second approval was in 2017 for a cognitive behavioral therapy platform for substance abuse. Due in part to FDA approvals and successful individual studies, some digital therapeutic programs for diabetes and weight loss are now covered by employer-provided insurance, but reimbursement policies are still evolving, as evidenced by Medicare’s recent decision to cover in-person diabetes prevention programs (DPP), but not virtual DPP.155 Continued research will likely be the key to expanding insurance coverage under Medicare and other insurance carriers.
Reevaluating medication adherence in the era of digital health
Published in Expert Review of Medical Devices, 2021
Adherence will be one part of the digital health puzzle, whereby a clinician can know when a patient is taking their medication in real time, and the associated digital biomarker of impact. Balancing medication safety and efficacy with this model through a continuous and real-time model of care will help address lapse in optimization of medication therapy that currently plagues patient care. This is now being seen in pulmonary treatment, soon in the management of diabetes, and more than likely in cardiovascular conditions [95,96]. Further, the aspect of patient self-management and self-titration of their medications can now be accomplished using these mechanics. One possible means will be integration of sensors tracking medication utilization with digital therapeutics, which can use their software to then guide therapy treatment based on remote provider oversight. Stakeholders will seek to expand these successes into other therapeutic categories, such as oncology, autoimmune conditions, and other potential high-cost conditions that payers will seek to reduce costs or expand care options.
Safety and efficacy of a prescription digital therapeutic as an adjunct to buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder
Published in Current Medical Research and Opinion, 2021
Yuri A. Maricich, Warren K. Bickel, Lisa A. Marsch, Kirstin Gatchalian, Jeffrey Botbyl, Hilary F. Luderer
The efficacy of the digital therapeutic was evaluated in a 2014 RCT of 170 adults with OUD at the Center for Addiction Research, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences12. This study did not report safety outcomes, however. It also did not evaluate abstinence from individual substances, and it did not characterize abstinence during the last four weeks of the 12-week study treatment period, which is the current approach recommended by the National Institute of Drug Abuse16. The objective of this study was to further evaluate the efficacy of the digital therapeutic in treatment-seeking individuals with OUD by analyzing abstinence data in the last four weeks of treatment for both cocaine use and opioid use in order to ascertain any unique impacts of treatment with TES on these specialized populations of patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). Safety data, which have not been reported previously, were analyzed to evaluate any associations between use of a digital therapeutic and adverse events typical of patients with OUD.
Profile of Somryst Prescription Digital Therapeutic for Chronic Insomnia: Overview of Safety and Efficacy
Published in Expert Review of Medical Devices, 2020
Digital therapeutics are already having an impact on the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, and treatment of diseases, health conditions, and syndromes and hold a realistic promise to move into mainstream health care in the next five years. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend by increasing the demand for contact-less treatment options for therapy – options ideally suited to technologies, such as PDTs, which remotely deliver high-quality, evidence-based therapeutic content. The shortage of qualified specialty providers for a wide range of health conditions is a barrier that PDTs are well-positioned to overcome – and with the additional demand for virtual treatments, PDTs could be considered a first-line approach for the delivery of these treatments. Coming years are likely to see the development of many more PDTs addressing a broad range of mental disorders, as well as management of chronic medical disorders that benefit from ongoing tracking and behavioral strategies.