How pharma can improve acute and chronic patient care with digital health solutions

Brian Flatley, vice president of Consulting Services at S3 Connected Health looks at the digital health landscape and what its adoption means within pharma.

Ageing populations and increased lifestyle-related risk factors mean chronic disease is on the rise. According to the ECDA, more than a third of the European population – over 100 million citizens – are affected by chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs); these NCDs also now account for 86% of deaths in the WHO European region. 

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the situation further as care for both acute illnesses and support for patients with long-term chronic conditions and NCDs is deferred, increasing the likelihood of health complications, more severe symptoms, and greater mortality rates. 

In the face of problems old and new, the focus of healthcare now needs to shift from just treating ailments as they arise, to more proactive, predictive, and preventative modes of care that allow healthcare providers (HCPs) to intervene before conditions manifest or worsen.

The digital health solutions created by pharmaceutical and life sciences companies have a crucial role to play in bringing about this change, and ultimately improving patient outcomes. Here’s how digital health solutions can help.

Getting drugs to market more efficiently

The first key benefit of digital health solutions for patients is the part they play in getting drugs to market quicker. 

In practice, some pharma companies are already using AI tools to speed up the drug discovery process by improving the hit rate and identification process for suitable clinical trial candidates. 

Easily portable digital health monitoring tools thatallow those trials to become more decentralised when they take place. By conducting trials wherever a patient is – rather than at traditional centres of excellence – pharma companies can gain access to a far greater audience, and a far greater pool of data, which gives much clearer evidence as to the efficacy of a drug in the real-world.

Digital health solutions are also improving exactly how we judge the efficacy of treatments in clinical trials, and ensuring the maximum benefit for patients. By incorporating digital endpoints as both primary and secondary endpoints within clinical trials, pharma companies can take patient outcomes into account more freely than traditional clinical endpoints. That, in turn, allows us to better evaluate the real value of a drug for patients. In fact, according to DiMe (the Digital Medicine Society), 62 sponsors of medical studies have incorporated digital endpoints within their trial design.

Improving patient outcomes through integrated care 

Beyond drug discovery, digital health tools can significantly improve patient outcomes in-market, either as stand alone health solutions and digital therapeutics (DTx) or as part of an integrated approach to care to include their medication and a digital support solution.

There are two key factors to this approach, and the first is better connectivity between patients and healthcare professionals. It’s an unfortunate fact that a reduction in long-term treatment adherence impacts health outcomes, and guiding patient behaviour is critical to keeping them on track.

Digital health companions and other evidence-based digital intervention strategies provide a closer link between patients and clinicians, making it easier to ensure patients stick to a treatment plan. In essence, they give healthcare professionals the ability to observe patient behaviour and monitor real-world data, allowing for earlier intervention when a particular patient’s adherence or status isn’t as expected.

As a result, improved communication and adherence allows HCPs to achieve the best outcomes for their patients, and pharma businesses to fully realise the efficacy of a medication in a real-world setting.

The second aspect of an integrated approach is more holistic patient care. Drugs are often just one element of a wider patient treatment programme that increasingly involves digital health tools to further improve outcomes.

Psoriasis is a good example: pharmaceuticals have long been administered to reduce the immune response triggered by the condition, as well as alleviate discomfort. Standalone 

DTx tools, however, can address the comorbidities that often accompany the condition – like depression and other mental health issues – and ensure a more successful overall treatment of the condition.

Measuring new outcomes to enhance patient wellbeing and QoL

As we move towards a more integrated approach to healthcare that incorporates different modalities of treatment (such as pharmaceuticals) with digital health solutions and DTx, how we measure success must change, too.

A broader approach to treatment requires holistic clinical measures that take into account the entire patient situation and all the markers of a condition. For example, rather than clinicians and pharmaceutical companies judging successful psoriasis treatment just on the improvement of skin-related symptoms, they need to take into account the overall impact on the patient’s life.

Measuring new outcomes enables us to articulate not only the immediate clinical benefits a new drug can bring, but also factor the wider socioeconomic benefits that are important to patients and ultimately improve their quality of life.

Improving treatment with preventative care 

The final benefit of digital health solutions for patients is the opportunity to shift towards preventative care. 

Many of the acute conditions our health systems deal with have historically been caused by poorly managed – or sometimes unidentified – chronic conditions.

The more holistically we treat chronic illness, and the easier we make it for patients to continue their treatment, the more likely we are to prevent symptoms from worsening. Equally, the greater our chances of reducing acute ‘flare-up’ episodes that create significant strain on our health services – for instance, fewer hostile visits or serious interruptions in sufferers’ daily lives. 

Digital tools can directly contribute to preventing acute episodes by identifying flare triggers and nonadherence quickly and accurately, and getting patients the care they need before a situation worsens. 

In those conditions where there is little clarity around symptom awareness or onset markers – like dementia, for example – digital tools can also help us better identify those markers.

Of course, not all health issues can be prevented, and there will always be a need for acute medical care. Digital health solutions can assist here too: those designed to help clinicians track surgical site infection post-operation, for example, allow doctors to respond rapidly to an infection in its early stages and prevent further spread.

The future of pharma is digital

The advent of digital health solutions in the pharma space brings a range of new challenges. We’re seeing a complete restructure in how healthcare practitioners, patients, and pharmaceutical companies interact.

But patient attitudes are changing, and our own research shows high demand for digital health solutions in the wake of the pandemic. 71% of patients we surveyed were willing to use digital healthcare solutions to support or supplement in-clinic care, whether for greater convenience (42%), peace of mind (35%), easier access to healthcare (35%), or the chance to be more proactive about their wellbeing (33%).

For pharma, that means there’s never been a better time to make the most of everything digital health solutions have to offer: faster drug discovery, a more effective way to demonstrate the efficacy of their treatments in the market, and, ultimately, better, measurable outcomes for patients.