The HealthXL Sprint 2-part meeting series connects senior leaders across our community to solve the latest health challenges. In our most recent sprint we discussed DTx and pharma partnerships in mental health. In this blog we’ve pulled out the top takeaways from this series.
5 key recommendations for DTx and pharma partnerships in mental health.
To achieve progress, continuous stakeholder alignment and buy-in is necessary. A bottom-up approach could also help drive progress. When partnering with pharma, it requires a lot of work to have everyone involved aligned and on the same path, however, this is necessary to be successful. Internally, pharma companies are experiencing similar challenges, with digital teams struggling to focus on end-points or functions of the product that will align with individual team goals.
Reducing drop-out rates of users is key in the post-launch phase of a product. The user experience needs to be good and is excellent in most apps. The solution needs to be integrated with the care plan, and scripting as well as integrated with EHR. Compliance is much better when the clinician is driving the care plan and the DTx is the reward. Increasing compliance and medication adherence will increase Pharma industry interest.
From the outset, it is important to have a clear definition of what you are treating. These solutions need to be built with a particular problem and population in mind, including: what the unmet need is and what the end-point looks like. There needs to be a tangible overlap between pharma business goals and patient needs for the solution to be successful. The patient needs to be involved from the start, and as the end user, if it’s not bringing value to them, they won’t use it.
Digital Therapeutic (DTx) data capture is becoming more relevant and needs to be built in from the start. Identifying key metrics and end-points will enable gathering of high quality data. Clearly providing a clinical outcome and solving an unmet need, could be the differentiating factor from a clinical and patient perspective and be used to build brand preference. DTx is becoming increasingly weighed for this, and will become more relevant including FDA approval.
Digital Health companies need to define the value they are creating for Pharma. It can be a challenge for Pharma to see the tangible value, and where the value is coming back to Pharma without the traditional model. The revenue value for short-term and long-term needs to be evident. There are ROIs outside of profit and loss, however, it’s difficult to present these to Pharma. The limitations around additions of CPT codes and reimbursement will also create a challenge, with Pharma less familiar in this space. It is possible to take advantage of existing CPT codes outside of DTx, which may be an easier option compared to creating a new CPT code.
Experts Included: Anthony Como (Connected Care and Digital Health Solution Leader, Respiratory Care Business, Philips), Cathy Zaremba (Director of Product Marketing, BrightInsight), Christopher Hall (Vice President, Pharma, Mobio Interactive), Chrysonthia Horne (Senior Associate Investments & Venture Management, atai Life Sciences), Myles Furnace (Commercial VP, Closed Loop Medicine), Rani Cohen (Co-Founder, Gray Matters Health)
*All opinions are the participants’ own and do not necessarily reflect the stance of their respective employers.
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