Saviance Technologies

Digital Medicine Today

Healthcare technology leaders and digital medicine advocates are filled with ideas and concepts on how digital medicine can democratize medicine and improve medication experience amongst patients more powerfully than ever. Here are five of the latest cutting edge ideas of digital medicine.

• VR to improve PTSD, ADHD, and Addiction: Experts are seeing virtual reality as beyond fun experiences and video games. Virtual reality helmets are used for Exposure Therapy - a type of behavior therapy used to treat addiction, PTSD and milder anxiety. The idea is to use the helmet to directly expose a patient to their feared situation or object just enough to overcome their anxiety and distress.
• Digital Therapy: This prescribed therapy involves using a software to customize a patient’s therapy according to behaviors and questions answered. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Digital Therapy involves “a combination of remote monitoring, behavior modification and personalized intervention overseen by the patients’ own doctors. Digital Therapy has shown to improve outcomes in patients with diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease.
• Trackable Pills: Abilify MyCite was primarily created for schizophrenic and depression patient, but other trackable pills are on the rise to help patients control their chronic diseases. These pills are ingested with sensors attached. Once ingested, a signal is sent to a Band-Aid-like patch. The patch sends the date and time the patient ingested the medication to a mobile app. This data can be viewed by the patient, and upon the patine’s will, by family members and the physician.
• Precision Medicine and AI: Although not under use currently, precision medicine has been heavily invested in and is predicted to radically transform the way preventative health measure are taken. According to Business Insider, “precision medicine makes use of variations in consumers’ genes, environment, and lifestyle to guide the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases.” It challenged the ‘one-size-fits-all treatment plans. The idea is that by providing high degree customized solutions to illnesses, it will minimize the number of hospital visits and unnecessary tests.
• Wearable Patches: As mentioned above, wearable patches are being developed and used to monitor patients with chronic illnesses. The sensor is made of stretchable electronic technology that is comfortable for patients to wear, accurate enough to track healing activity, and see what’s going on inside a patient’s body at a level that traditional wearables cannot achieve.

How Digital Medicine Will Impact Pharma Companies

With Digital Medicine on the rise, pharma companies are having to adapt and change their traditional ways of doing business. Pharmacy techs and leaders are facing a mix of challenges and opportunities with such new and cutting edge medicine. How will pharmaceuticals look like in the near future?

• Increased Responsibilities Amongst Pharmacy Technicians: As pharmacies shift their focus on increased patient care, pharm techs will be expected to undertake new roles. According to Glen Gard, Manager of Pharmacy Compliance, these new roles include, “medication reconciliation, quality control and patient satisfaction, pharmacy compliance oversight, medication therapy management, and administering vaccinations.”
• Consolidation and Vertical Integration: As mentioned above. Pharmacists are expected to take more active roles in direct patient care. However many techs are struggling with providing quality care due to the lack of effective data sharing. Health IT software companies are coming up with ways to make sure all health care providers, including pharmacies, have access to the latest patient information at their own point of care. There is a strong push for standardized access to information using standardized vocabulary across all health care providers.
• Rising Specialty Pharmacies: Whereas community pharmacies provide traditional treatments, specialty pharmacies are centered on products used to treat specific disease states (i.e. Cancer, Chron’s, HIV/AIDS, etc.). Many insurance companies are in favor of speciality pharmacies and some are incentivizing by offering discounts on copayments.
• Lowered Abuse of Prescriptions through PDMP: Abuse of prescription drugs has been a long known issue that pharmaceuticals have been tirelessly working to end for years. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) are being heavily enforced across America; pharmacists can expect PDMPs to limit initial fills of controlled substances, expanded electronic prescribing for controlled substances, and see increased efforts around the disposal of controlled substances. Trackable Pills will play a crucial role in monitoring overdose, abuse, and non-adherence.