Approximately 20 million people worldwide are living with rheumatoid arthritis. Around a million new patients are diagnosed each year, with women disproportionately affected. Early detection, treatment and proper disease management are crucial to slowing damage to joints, and avoiding complications like loss of movement, joint replacement and other related outcomes such as lost employment and premature heart disease.
Digital health leaders recognize the opportunity for digital to augment medications to manage diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis. When we teamed up with HealthXL to conduct a survey, 61% of respondents indicated that disease management is the most promising use case for Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). In that same survey, rheumatoid arthritis was named a top 10 indication for SaMD. Digital disease management drives therapy value in many ways, including:
Our latest white paper, Digital Disease Management in Rheumatoid Arthritis: How Digital Solutions Resolve Challenges and Deliver Value, explores digital's role in improving rheumatoid arthritis care.
Patient care for rheumatoid arthritis has several obstacles. Digital solutions can help resolve these challenges and reduce their impact on patients.
Patients require extensive education and training, and they need to make lifestyle adjustments. According to research, 50% to 60% of patients report poor adherence or stop taking their medications altogether after one year.
There are many different drugs and inhibitors that can help patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and most patients have to undergo lengthy trial and error to figure out which treatments work for them.
JAK inhibitors were issued a black box warning by the FDA in 2021, which has made it more difficult for providers to weigh the pros and cons of this treatment for their patients. It can be hard for a new class of drugs to gain traction, even if it's a better match for a patient's clinical and financial needs.
Providers often have to depend on accurate self-reporting by patients. This makes it tricky for them to determine how well treatments are working and to gain insight into the patient's quality of life.
Many rheumatoid arthritis patients have multiple care providers who operate independently from each other. They must rely on the patient to remember what other providers have recommended.
Successful digital solutions can restore the value that was impacted by the challenges listed above. Here are a few opportunities for digital.
One study found that patients enrolled in a digital support program have 44% better adherence than those not enrolled. Connected digital devices give patients real-time insights that help them to manage their condition.
These devices include:
Clinicians need tools that enable them to have more informed discussions with their patients and other providers. Secure, compliant tools connect the whole care team and the patient, which improves collaboration and streamlines care decisions.
A digital platform can optimize patient care by integrating:
Biopharma companies depend on insights from Real-World Data to optimize R&D and commercialization. Real-World Data is important because it:
To learn more about the implications of digital rheumatoid arthritis care and how our Disease Management Solution can make all the difference, read Digital Disease Management in Rheumatoid Arthritis: How Digital Solutions Resolve Challenges and Deliver Value.