A digital health age — how to take on the challenges of this advancing field

Digital health is a major trend topic in pharma right now with many companies investing in the field and looking at ways the tech can be utilised. In this Q&A, Norbert Haberland, VP New Processes and Products, Datwyler Sealing Solutions, speaks about how Datwyler is taking on the challenges of this advancing field.

Q. What is your view on digital health and how does your company engage in this field?

A. Digital health is a key focus for the healthcare industry at the moment. It has rightfully become one of the big trend topics and has a lot of potential for the future. It can open up a wide market, offering many opportunities to pharmaceutical and medical companies.

There are several factors, which promote the popularity of the topic. Take the advancing age of the population, for example. As people get older health issues such as high blood pressure or cardiac arrhythmia can develop. These issues need constant monitoring, not only directly but also remotely. Digital solutions can offer a safe and reliable option for this purpose.

Apart from the diagnostic and therapeutic side, there is also the fact that people increasingly want to monitor their bodies and functions themselves, mostly for wellness or fitness purposes. Altogether, this triggers a growing demand for means and devices to monitor and record biological data.

Digital health is becoming more relevant for clinical, therapeutic and private purposes, which, in the future, makes it an extremely important asset to the healthcare industry. This development has been growing for a few years now and obviously leads to a change in the medical world.

This also means that we have a lot more data at hand than we used to. While in the past, simple and one-time laboratory tests were evaluated, today’s much higher quantity of qualitative data can be used for both diagnoses and therapies.

Patients can now have access to long-term monitoring, which can even be performed by themselves, affording a much better foundation for a diagnosis. This is a definitive trend with potential for growth and further development.

In the medical world, Datwyler is predominantly present as a significant player when it comes to the packaging of drugs and the development and manufacturing of medical device components for the administration of drugs. So far, we have mainly explored the area of wearable devices and have started to pave the way for us to further expand in the direction of digital health. As we have been working in the field of digital health since 2014, we have been early birds in this segment and are trying to leverage this experience.

Q. Partnerships are commonplace in digital health as sharing and transfer of knowledge is of key importance. Is this something you are doing as well?

A. Since June 2016, we are closely cooperating with the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) Institute in Belgium and Holst Center in the Netherlands to do research in the wearables sector. This three-year research programme is centred on developing advanced materials for intelligent electrodes for brain monitoring platforms. Those are being developed for use in long-term and remote electroencephalograms (EEG) for clinical use, neurofeedback and multi-sensor brain monitoring applications. Further developments relate to smart electrodes for electrooculograms (EOG) and electromyograms (EMG) in the virtual reality/augmented reality field.

Q. What are the advantages of the electrodes and technologies you are developing?

A. As the name ‘wearable’ suggests, the electrodes are made to be worn on the body for a long time, over days and weeks. It is of great importance that the electrodes and their materials offer high wearing comfort, are waterproof, flexible and biocompatible. This offers a higher comfort to the patient and, therefore, a higher degree of relaxation, which in most therapies is of utmost importance. One of the key principles that we follow at Datwyler is the principle of Patient Safety. The patient and his or her safety is always at the centre of our attention and research.

Q. Are there markets that are especially receptive or pre-destined for digital health solutions and products?

A. I would not put it down to specific markets or countries. It is much more about the infrastructure that needs to be in place, for example when processing all the generated data.

A data communication structure is important when patients are being monitored in the long-term. Not all countries can necessarily provide that. We know that activities are ongoing to enable this, such as sending or receiving the data in batches rather than having a continuing flow. This makes it easier to submit data because it does not depend on an always present infrastructure.

It is important that all patients can eventually profit from the developments that are being made.

Q. What long-term goals or objectives do you see in the wearable sector?

A. In general, we at Datwyler try to tackle challenges presented by market developments head on. For example, within drug packaging, we absorbed the new requirements of drug administration in biologics and biosimilars with our coating, Omni Flex, and the Omni Flex Coated Plunger for pre-filled syringes. Therefore, the topic of drug administration is something that is at the forefront of our minds, even when addressing the topic of wearables.

Of course, collecting patient data and bio signals, as well as the relevant technologies used for this data collection, are the most important tasks now, but concentrating on the future should be the key priority when focusing on digital health.

Combining wearables with drug administration could result in new therapeutic measures and devices, for example in the treatment of diabetes. As one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, affecting all age groups and countries, it is an important endeavour to join the efforts to treat diabetes effectively and efficiently.

Most diabetic patients measure their blood sugar by pricking themselves with a needle and measuring the blood glucose level directly with a special device. Wearables give them the chance to continuously measure their glucose level and consequently be told when and how to balance out their insulin.

When combining it with a wearable device such as an insulin pump, the device can directly and independently administer the exact amount of insulin the patient needs at that time. This can help to control and contain overdoses, as a constant level of medication gives the patient the security to always have a level that is fitting to their specific medical requirement.

Q. This addresses a point often made in the digital health discussion — who has decisive power over the constant stream of data generated by wearables and could this become a future problem?

A. We are very much aware of this discussion. However, sustainable solutions for this issue will need further consideration from different parties, and these debates have yet to take place.

It is not dissimilar to the discussion around autonomous driving and the self-driving car. The question of responsibility and the usage of data has not been entirely solved. However, it remains the subject of an intense debate.

One thing remains certain: the health and safety of our patients is always our first priority and main concern and we are working very hard to guarantee that this priority is always met with the highest importance and consideration.

Q. Which topic would you say has the most potential and will be of the highest importance to the digital health sector?

A. The development of sensors will definitely be one of the most decisive future priorities, which will then also sort the wheat from the chaff. The better or more intelligent the sensors are, the better data can be generated and worked with.

Good sensors – for example soft and dry specially coated polymer electrodes to provide unrestricted wearing comfort — in combination with smart algorithms to process the data will be one of the key factors for digital health. This is something we are working on intensely and will continue to work on — with our partners, in our worldwide facilities and departments and with much ambition.

In the end, we hope that we can provide safe and innovative solutions for digital health – no matter what the future holds.