The Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance) and a newly formed industry association called the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA) have formed a strategic partnership aimed at advancing the field of digital therapeutics.
Patty Mechael, executive vice president of PCHAlliance says the collaboration will “combine our resources to advance the field, galvanize key stakeholders, focus on developing standards of quality and work towards improving health outcomes through this newly developing sub-domain of personal connected health.”
To help achieve those goals, the partnership was set up to allow DTA to use some of PCHAlliance’s infrastructure, reach, and resources, while providing PCHAlliance better access to the leaders of the companies involved with the DTA.
Digital therapeutics are digital technology or software designed to treat medical conditions—by themselves or in combination with conventional drug therapies. Digital therapeutics include mobile apps, wearable sensors, health monitoring devices or software that can change an individual’s behavior in order to achieve positive clinical outcomes.
A recent report from Grand View Research Inc. says the digital therapeutics market will grow to about $9.4 billion in 2025, up from $1.7 billion in 2016—a 21% compound annual growth rate. Diabetes treatment is expected to gain the largest market share and obesity treatment also is expected to account for a considerable market share, the report says.
The announcement of the PCHAlliance/CTA partnership on Oct. 25 follows by a day the official launch of the DTA, which was formed to represent manufacturers of clinically validated digital therapeutic products.
“Our alliance is dedicated to advancing novel platforms and solutions that improve patients’ lives and add value to physicians, care teams, and the healthcare system,” says Anand K. Iyer, chief strategy officer at digital healthcare company WellDoc and a DTA board member. “These tools are used in daily life to improve patient and provider visibility into complex treatment processes and simplify pathways to better outcomes.”
In addition to WellDoc, companies initially involved are: Propeller Health, which sells sensors designed to make managing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease easier; medical information technology company Voluntis; Akili Interactive Labs, which creates cognitive therapeutics, assessments, and diagnostics tools; and Omada Health Inc., which sells a digital behavior change program designed to help people lose weight.
PCHAlliance is a non-profit organization formed by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Among other things, it publishes and promotes adoption of the Continua Design Guidelines—a framework for interoperability of personal connected health devices and systems—and convenes the annual Connected Health Conference.
Investors have shown significant interest in digital therapeutics. According to venture capital fund Rock Health, digital therapeutics companies received $302 million in funding during the first three quarters of 2017, making it one of the top six categories for digital health funding during that period.
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