A new partnership aims to develop a mobile app that would coach patients on a prescribed medication for atrial fibrillation, helping them to maintain compliance and avert a potentially fatal stroke.
The co-development agreement between Partners Healthcare's Center for Connected Health and Daiichi Sankyo marks a first for the Boston-based mHealth center: a project that ties together mHealth tools and the pharmaceutical industry, which is just now eyeing new platforms to consumer engagement. Daiichi Sankyo is a Japan-based global pharmaceutical company serving some 50 countries.
Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, the center's founder and director, hailed the new project in opening remarks at last week's Connected Health Symposium. He called the deal a "first in the industry," and an important step for pharma in "moving beyond the pill" and "adding value to the marketplace by surrounding it with a mobile platform."
The agreement calls for Daiichi Sankyo and the center to jointly develop an app that would guide users who have been prescribed oral anticoagulation therapy for AFib, a hard-to-detect irregular heartbeat that can cause a stroke if left untreated. The app would not only coach patients on how to take their medication, but also create feedback loops that would help providers create proper care management plans.
AFib is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia and present in roughly one in four adults over the age of 40, making them five times more susceptible to having a stroke.
It's also a prime candidate for the benefits of mHealth monitoring. Earlier this year, San Francisco-based AlieCor received FDA approval for an algorithm that detects AFib, and plans to include this technology in a wearable monitor that would give users – and their caregivers – access to a real-time ECG recording.
Speaking at the symposium. Kvedar said the development of a pharma-based app would give that industry an important inroads into mHealth, opening up new methods by which providers and consumers could improve medication use and adherence.
