Acta Scientific Medical Sciences (ISSN: 2582-0931)

Review Article Volume 4 Issue 3

Digital Therapeutics-What they are, what they will be

Giuseppe Recchia1,2, Daniela Maria Capuano3, Neeraj Mistri4,5 and Roberto Verna6,7*

1DaVinci Digital Therapeutics, Milan, Italy
2Fondazione Smith Kline, Verona, Italy
3World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, IL, USA
4Department of International Health, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA
5Hepatitis Business Solutions, Washington D.C., USA
6World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine IL, USA
7Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

*Corresponding Author: Roberto Verna, World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine IL, USA and Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Received: February 03, 2020; Published: February 26, 2020

×

Abstract

  The convergence of health and digital technology has led to the development of Digital Health, a broad category of digital health technologies aimed at improving human health and well-being, optimising the quality and safety of care, increasing access to treatment, making health services more efficient and reducing overall health care costs. As a subset of Digital Health, Digital Therapeutics are an emerging class of medicines that deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions. Similar to drugs, Digital Therapeutics consist of active ingredients and excipients. While the “digital active ingredient” is primarily responsible for the clinical outcome, “digital excipients” (virtual assistant, reminders, reward systems etc) are necessary to ensure the best user experience to the patient and to allow the prolonged use of the therapy. In order to allow interaction with patients, Digital Therapeutics may take different patient facing digital form, as smartphone applications, videogame, virtual reality programs and others. The research and development process of Digital Therapeutics consists of software development, pilot and full clinical development. The confirmatory randomized controlled clinical trials are critical to generate evidence of benefit for regulatory approval, reimbursement and prescription. Digital Therapeutics have the potential to transform the management of chronic diseases and to represent the first therapeutic option offered by each doctor to each of their patients with chronic disease and dependence. Since these expectations may or may not be fulfilled and potential benefits may be accompanied by unintended and/or adverse effects, the introduction, implementation, use and funding of Digital Therapeutics should be carefully evaluated and monitored.

Keywords: Digital; Therapeutics

×

References

  1. Schulz F., et al. “The Race is on. Taking advantage of digital platforms for medical technology”. Accenture Life Sciences (2018). 
  2. Frederix I., et al. “ESC e-Cardiology Working Group Position Paper: Overcoming challenges in digital health implementation in cardio-vascular medicine”. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2019): 1-12. 
  3. EXPH - Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing In Health. “Opinion on Assessing the impact of digital transformation of health services”. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union (2019). 
  4. Goldsack J., et al. “Digital Health, Digital Medicine, Digital Therapeutics (DTx): What’s the difference? (2019).
  5. Digital Therapeutic Alliance. Digital Therapeutics: Combining Technology and Evidence-based Medicine to Transform Personalized Patient Care (2018). 
  6. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. “Digital psychological therapy briefing”. Deprexis for adults with depression (2019). 
  7. Torous J., et al. “Towards a consensus around standards for smartphone apps and digital mental health”. World Psychiatry 18.1 (2019): 97-98.
  8. Grosjean S., et al. “The Design Process of an mHealth Technology: The Communicative Constitution of Patient Engagement Through a Participatory Design Workshop. ESSACHESS”. Journal for Communication Studies 12.1 (2019) 5-26.
  9. Duncan MJ and Kolt GS. “Learning from community-led and co-designed m-health interventions”. The Lancet Digital Health 1 (2019): 248-249.
  10. Purnama A and Drago D. FDA regulatory pathways for medical devices (2019). 
  11. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Health app: Sleepio for adults with poor sleep (2019). 
  12. Powell AC., et al. “Reimbursement of Apps for Mental Health: Findings from Interviews”. JMIR Ment Health 6.8 (2019): 14724.
  13. Gardiner R. What is digital health? (2019).
  14. World Economic Forum. Building the healthcare system of the future (2019). 
  15. De Maeseneer J and Boeckxstaens P. “James Mackenzie Lecture 2011: multimorbidity, goal-oriented care, and equity”. British Journal of General Practice 62.600 (2012): 522-524.
  16. Ricciardi W., et al. “Lehtonen L on behalf of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (EXPH). How to govern the digital transformation of health services”. European Journal of Public Health 29.3 (2019): 7-12.
  17. Deutscher Bundestag. Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz-DVG (2019). 
×

Citation

Citation: Roberto Verna., et al. “Digital Therapeutics-What they are, what they will be". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 4.3 (2020): 134-142.




Metrics

Acceptance rate30%
Acceptance to publication20-30 days
Impact Factor1.403

Indexed In





Contact US