IBSA’s commitment to Digital Therapeutics (DTx)

Digital therapeutics – or digital therapies – are not mere tele-monitoring initiatives, nor simple applications concerning health: they are actual curative interventions, capable of affecting the clinical outcomes, exactly like a pharmacological treatment.

While a drug interacts with the patient’s biology, digital therapies interact with the thoughts and behaviours of the users. The treatment with digital therapies is based on changes in behaviour or lifestyle, as well as on the application of cognitive-behavioral interventions through the implementation of digital guidelines and programs.

As their pharmacological counterparts, digital therapies – which are considered to all intents and purposes like a medical device – also require a basis of scientific evidence, and they should be tested through clinical studies, approved by regulatory authorities, and followed by post-marketing studies.

Furthermore, in the same way as the traditional ones, digital therapies are also composed of an active ingredient and a series of excipients: the active ingredient is the therapeutic algorithm; the excipients – which are also digital – are all the services integrated into the platform, such as reminders and motivational messages.

DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES

Patients suffering from chronic diseases are those who can benefit most from digital therapies. These patients, in fact, often report secondary symptoms such as malaise, mood swings, insomnia, migraines, anxiety, weight gain or loss, tiredness: these are all – sometimes underestimated – symptoms which could be signs of therapeutic inadequacy. So, what are the prospects?

In chronic therapies, Digital Therapeutics could be useful to create therapeutic habits, improve the management of chronic therapies and assist patients discreetly, in real time and through personalised treatments.

DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS FOR IBSA IN THE THYROID SETTING

Faithful to its vision of placing the Person at the centre of its work, IBSA is committed to developing a digital therapy for the treatment of hypothyroidism (a chronic disease).

Patients suffering from thyroid dysfunction, in fact, suffer from both physical and cognitive discomfort – such as depressed mood, reduced cognitive performance and reduced ability to concentrate – which is difficult to treat with drugs alone. Furthermore, they have to manage complex situations by themselves, including adherence to therapy and self-assessment of clinical status – since medical visits are often spread over time – with the risk of feeling abandoned in the management of their condition and/or malaise.