Patient Diaries are Out, Wearables are in for Drug Research

Traditionally, patients in clinical trials were often asked to keep a paper diary to record things like blood pressure, pain or quality of life scores.  Periodically, during scheduled appointments, they would share their diary with the investigator for analysis. Today, Clinical Research Organizations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies are looking at wearable personal health devices as an alternative to handwritten patient-recorded data, which is an opportunity showing great promise. A new survey found that 60% of pharma companies are already using digital tools to collect patient generated data and medication adherence, and 97% will in the next 5 years.
 

According to an article in Applied Clinical Trials, “The remote monitoring of patients using a suite of wearables and sensors has significant application in creating more patient-centric clinical trials, that the need for a patient to travel long distances to attend site visits can be replaced by a ‘virtual site visit’ in the patient's home and that clinically relevant data that track both data quality and the safety and efficacy of drugs can be collected and transmitted remotely.” 
 

Pharma's investment in digital health is increasing, but still in early stages. Pharma is looking to digital technologies to help better manage costs especially in streamlining Phase 3 studies. Pharma is also looking beyond clinical trials to support those with chronic conditions. One example is the Proteus pill, an ingestible sensor, enables monitoring of the digestive system. Sanofi-Verily partnership is another example of a pharma company trying to make digital health innovation part of its business model through an acquisition. 
 

Pfizer recently released Moodivator, a consumer-facing app for depression, creating “the opportunity for patients to track and export their mood and goal progress in easy-to-read charts…and can then be shared with doctors to help inform care decisions.” Also, Teva and Intel are developing wearable technology for Huntington's disease. 
 

These are encouraging moves which are bringing research and post-marketing of drugs into the digital age of personal connected health.