Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that there will be a single organization to help pharma companies with digital health collaboration.
One of the things that was notable at the mHealth Summit last week was the number of sessions centered on pharmaceutical companies’ work in digital health as part of the beyond the pill trend. A report published earlier this year illustrated the number of apps pharmaceutical companies produces and the conditions for which they have developed them. The apps are frequently designed to improve health literacy and motivate patients to take their medication to improve adherence, especially around chronic conditions.
In addition to helping people better manage their conditions, the big goal is taking a slice of the $290 billion medication non adherence costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Patients that get sicker from not taking their drugs as prescribed just add more costs onto the system.
Updated In an interview with Qualcomm Life General Manager Rick Valencia, he said as the organization has begun working more with the pharmaceutical industry, it’s seen a shift to companies adding a dedicated head of digital medicine. These companies are focused on integrating digital technology into solutions and clinical trials, among other areas. They lead teams with a dedicated headcount, a budget and a clear charter. They know what they want to achieve in the space. This is occurring within each of these organizations.
“I think pharma is getting better and better at determining what works and what doesn’t work.”
He added that next year we’ll see some interesting collaborations between pharmaceutical companies that involve a digital health component, for treatments such as COPD.
Qualcomm Life has worked with many of the big pharma companies. It manages 2net, an operating platform and hub that connects remote monitoring devices to the cloud for data storage and interoperability. HealthyCircles is a care coordination platform, which Qualcomm acquired last year. It provides medication history, labs, care team data entry to improve the quality of data sets for care transitions.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Although the pharma companies active in digital health are working at different paces they are each tracking closely to one another. He observed that “the biggest differences we see in ones closest to deploying real solutions is they have moved beyond their innovation teams.”
He added that we can expect to see some interesting collaborations around digital health. For example, a drug delivery producer and drug maker collaborating on a mobile health app.
Additionally Valencia said gamification could be another component of this digital health collaborative organization.
“Ultimately, alongside prescriptions for whatever ails us, we will get a digital health component, maybe even a digital health coach,” Valencia said. “If pharma succeeds at getting people to be more compliant, the system pays well.”
The move by CMS to agree to reimburse for activities by providers centered on helping them manage their chronic conditions has also played a big role in motivating providers to use tools at their disposal to help people to make better health choices. Valencia noted that the reimbursement is the kind of thing that will help make the transition easier from fee for service to fee for performance. As the health system shifts to a wider focus on population health, Qualcomm Life’s underlying technology is positioned to support chronic care management systems.
