Autoimmune diseases affect as much as 4.5% of the world population across some 80 independent diseases. We wanted to take some time this week to highlight digital solutions in immunology to honor World Psoriasis Day on October 29th, and the recent World Arthritis Day, which was on October 12th.
While autoimmune diseases are everywhere, there’s nothing simple about navigating the ongoing care of conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and Graves disease, especially as the drug landscape expands at a rapid pace thanks to innovation in biologics and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors.
In the words of one Vice President and Head of Value and Access at a top 10 biopharma company, "Because spaces are crowded and drugs are expensive, payers are trying to pick horses and narrow the field or make it difficult to get products. As a result, access for providers and patients is difficult, constraining and confining."
The upside of this complexity is that there’s a huge opportunity for companion digital solutions that enable providers to deliver better care to patients and empower patients to more successfully manage their condition.
Leading biopharma companies are increasingly aware of the challenges the industry is facing in managing chronic autoimmune diseases and turning their focus to developing digital solutions that address the challenges faced by three key groups:
Providers
The treatment selection process can be daunting, with so many treatment options on the market–both branded and biosimilars. Adding another layer of complexity, many biologics are indicated for multiple conditions, and many patients are dealing with multiple autoimmune challenges.
Patients
Autoimmune conditions are chronic, yet that doesn’t mean that one drug treatment will take a patient from their initial diagnosis through the rest of their life. Patient needs evolve over time, treatments change, and quality of life can suffer without ongoing symptom management and side effect tracking. Unfortunately, the successful management of these conditions relies heavily on patient self-reporting, and the ubiquitous paper-based tracking leaves a lot to be desired.
Biopharma
Providers and patients are often limited in which treatments are available to them, based on the cost of the drugs and stringent insurance reimbursement criteria. Biopharma companies require solid real-world evidence to be able to tell insurers a compelling value story that can unlock better care options for patients.
We’re dedicated to helping innovative biopharma companies deliver better disease management for patients living with chronic autoimmune conditions and the providers who care for them.
Well-designed digital solutions can ease pain points that frustrate providers, patients and caregivers alike, and enhance the patient experience by connecting healthcare stakeholders and giving them tools to excel.
Compliant, easy-to-use patient-facing apps allow patients to go from cumbersome, point-in-time symptom tracking to comprehensive quality of life data capture. Powerful data dashboards for providers that deliver real-time treatment data, clinical trial information and drug trends in one place, enabling providers to make better treatment decisions for patients today—and as their conditions evolve over time. Seamless patient, provider, and clinical trial participant data capture can provide biopharma companies the insights they need to make a compelling case for reimbursement—and identify opportunities for R&D.
Every day we see more and more progress toward our vision to transform patient outcomes globally by bringing the power of digital technology to healthcare.