Digital therapeutics made easy

Digital therapeutics or DTx is a term used to describe the use of clinically-validated digital technologies to support health and well-being. The definition of DTx encompasses both behavioral interventions (e.g., online coaching, weight loss programs, etc.) as well as systems involving wearable devices, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, and other modern technological advancements. The ...

Therapeutic adherence is crucial to reach the desired clinical outcomes with drug treatments. The same reasons holds for digital therapeutics too. Indeed, how can someone benefit from a treatment which wasn’t delivered? And this could also be a much more pressing topic to be addressed for DTx, considering it could be easier to take a ...

2020 was a though and dramatic year, in which the world had to face the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s still struggling with it, although now we have new weapons available: vaccines. However, among all the sufferings, restrictions and economic difficulties, 2020 was also characterised by a boost in digitalization. For example, remote working began the ...

Efficacy/effectiveness* is not enough. As a society we can’t limit our requests to clinical benefits alone, but we have to demand sustainability of medical treatments.   Beyond effectiveness: a holistic evaluation Healthcare costs are already high and continuously increasing due to ageing populations. Thus, new treatments must prove to be cost-effective to be “better” than ...

If you got into a few of digital therapeutics, chance you saw cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in action are pretty high. Cognitive behavioural therapy is most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but it can be also useful for other mental and physical health problems. Indeed, CBT techniques were also applied in a couple ...

Traditionally a placebo is an inert substance or treatment which is not designed to have a therapeutic value. In clinical trial it serves as a control and patients usually aren’t aware if they are taking it or the experimental therapy (this condition is called blindness). Should digital medicine consider a digital placebo too? Why placebo ...

Can an app replace traditional drugs? This is the question asked, often in a sceptical way because it seems too futuristic. The brief answer is: not generally speaking but they may… replace drugs in specific situations, with selected patients’ settings reduce treatments duration or dosages act as preventing medicine 1. Replacing drugs with digital therapies ...

Insomnia: an overlooked disorder Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, affecting about 1 adult in 4, although prevalence estimates may vary according to the definition used. A simplistic definition based on DSM-5 criteria for insomnia could be: Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or early-morning awakening that leads to dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality, ...