As Proteus Digital Health awaits for a decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its beyond-the-pill collaboration with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. with the drug Abilify, it is pushing ahead with health system partners. Barton Health became the first to implement its approach to medication adherence using swallowable sensors to help people with chronic diseases manage their condition as part of the Proteus Discover program, according to a company statement.
The goal of Proteus Discover is to use the data collected by its FDA-cleared sensors to track patients’ medication taking and personal health habits. By identifying patterns in patients’ behavior, it can help physicians identify any challenges associated with drug regimens.
Updated In a phone interview with Barton Health CEO Clint Purvance, he said it would initially roll out the technology to 100 patients with hypertension taking generic medication. The company eventually plans to make it available to patients with other chronic conditions such as diabetes and some cardiovascular conditions this year.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Purvance conceded that reimbursement would vary, depending on the carrier, but he added that the cost for the health system to enroll patients was not prohibitive.
“This has been a historic time for Barton Health. [The technology] allows us to better understand our patients, especially those with chronic conditions,” Purvance said.
In a statement, he noted when a non-adherent patient is not seeing results and the physician believes a patient is taking a medication, it could lead to unnecessary changes in treatment which can be costly for the patient and the health system.
Proteus uses a specialty pharmacy service to insert an ingestible sensor into the patient’s medication. It communicates with a wearable patch on the patient’s arm. The patch uses sensors to record the time of ingestion and other relevant data from the patients such as heart rate, activity and rest.
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.
The data provided by the digital medicine is used to pinpoint issues that can prevent patients from improving. It could be the medication, the dosage or the side effects of the drug. It could also be a patient’s lifestyle, food and exercise choices, or forgetfulness or maybe the patient is still coming to terms with having a chronic condition and doesn’t fully understand why they need to take medication if they don’t feel unwell.
The point is, medication adherence is a costly challenge but it’s also a complex issue and needn’t begin and end with a patient. One of the goals of the Proteus Discover program is to improve communication between patients and physicians.
