Dec 07,2023

AI May Spare Breast Cancer Patients Unnecessary Treatments

A new AI tool may make it possible to spare breast cancer patients unnecessary chemotherapy treatments by using a more precise method of predicting their outcomes, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Medicine. The study was conducted in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) which created a unique dataset of breast cancer patients through their Cancer Prevention Studies. This dataset has representation of patients from over 423 U.S. counties, many who received a diagnosis or care at community medical centers. In this collaboration, Northwestern developed the AI software while scientists at the ACS and National Cancer Institute provided expertise on breast cancer epidemiology and clinical outcomes. To train the AI model, scientists required hundreds of thousands of human-generated annotations of cells and tissue structures within digital images of patient tissues. To achieve this, they created an international network of medical students and pathologists across several continents. The AI system was desined to analyze 26 different properties of a patient’s breast tissue to generate an overall prognostic score. The system also generates individual scores for the cancer, immune and stromal cells to explain the overall score to the pathologist. The AI tool was able to identify breast cancer patients who are currently classified as high or intermediate risk but who become long-term survivors. That means the duration or intensity of their chemotherapy could be reduced. Next the scientists will evaluate this model prospectively to validate it for clinical use.

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Dec 08,2023

Digital health coaching program for breast cancer did not improve patient-reported outcomes

A novel digital health coaching program did not improve patient-reported outcomes among individuals with active breast cancer, according to study results presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The researchers sought to evaluate the effect of a digital health coaching program on patient-reported outcomes, including global health, symptom burden, quality of life, health care utilization and financial toxicity. The analysis included 254 English-speaking adult women undergoing active treatment for breast cancer. Researchers randomly assigned 127 women to usual care. They assigned the other 127 to a 6-month digital health coaching program, which included weekly telephone calls from a health adviser; unlimited patient-initiated communication via phone, text or email; and digital delivery of additional health-behavior content. Results showed no significant improvement in physical patient-reported outcome scores at 3 months or 6 months among women assigned the digital intervention vs. usual care. Researchers reported similar results for mental patient-reported outcome scores at 3 months and 6 months. They also reported potential reasons for failure to detect a treatment effect for digital health coaching, including the ineffectiveness of digital health coaching on the selected outcomes, the low strength of the intervention, the variation in uptake of digital health coaching in the intervention group, heterogeneity of the sample and the potential that the study was underpowered due to COVID-19 restrictions that affected enrollment.

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Aug 11,2022

Frontiers in Digital Health Publication Presents Feel Therapeutics Program as a New Strategy for Effectively Monitoring and Improving Anxiety and Depression

Feel Therapeutics announced the publication in Frontiers in Digital Health of a landmark clinical feasibility study showing the effectiveness of Feel’s intervention program for anxiety and depression. The study presented the results from real-world-data to evaluate different aspects of the Feel Program, which is a 16-week, fully-remote, digital mental health support program created by Feel Therapeutics to bring objective data and precise support into the management of mental health. In this study, 48 participants suffering from mild or moderate Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorders (GAD) symptoms participated in the Feel Program and were assessed across three key metrics: feasibility of the program, participant engagement, and symptom improvement. The results demonstrated a high average precision level (87%) in identifying emotional events passively through the wearable device. Furthermore, the study showed high engagement rates of >60 minutes per week of app usage, and 4 out of 5 participants were very likely to recommend the program.

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Dec 05,2023 TOP STORY

Budget impact analysis of Propeller's digital monitoring platform for COPD

Researchers sought to project the potential savings and costs associated with Propeller’s digital therapeutic platform. The platform passively monitors inhaler medication usage to help healthcare providers identify patients at risk of exacerbations. Using an Excel-based model, researchers conducted a budget impact analysis of Propeller from both commercial payer and Medicare fee-for-service payer perspectives. The estimated number of annual eligible COPD patients for commercial and Medicare was 212,200 and 606,600, respectively. Propeller decreased costs by an estimated $2,475 (commercial) and $915 (Medicare) per enrolled patient. Taking into account estimated reductions in hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) use, the study projected approximately $1.60 and $1.70 per-member per-month savings for commercial and Medicare payers, respectively.

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Dec 05,2023

Use of Behavior Change Techniques and Quality of Commercially Available Inflammatory Bowel Disease Apps

Inclusion of evidence-based behavior change techniques (e.g., self-monitoring) in mobile health apps has the potential to promote adherence to inflammatory bowel disease treatment. The present study systematically evaluated the content and quality of free, commercially available inflammatory bowel disease management apps. Apps were identified using a systematic search of the Apple App and Google Play stores and were evaluated using Abraham and Michie's taxonomy of 26 behavior change techniques. A total of 51 inflammatory bowel disease management apps were evaluated. Apps included 0-16 behavior change techniques and 0-10 inflammatory bowel disease management behavior change techniques. Two apps, My IBD Care: Crohn's & Colitis and MyGiHealth GI Symptom Tracker, included the highest number of overall and inflammatory bowel disease management behavior change techniques along with high-quality scores. Bezzy IBD was the only app with a high number of overall and inflammatory bowel disease management behavior change techniques with a primary focus on social support/change. Most inflammatory bowel disease management apps reviewed included evidence-based inflammatory bowel disease management behavior change techniques.

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Nov 27,2023

AI-Powered TIL Analysis by Lunit Unveils Prognostic Insights for Colon Cancer - published in npj Precision Oncology

Lunit published a new study in npj Precision Oncology, using Lunit SCOPE IO to predict prognosis in stage II–III colon cancer via AI-powered spatial analysis of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). This study showed that Lunit SCOPE IO and the power of AI for spatial TIL analysis can provide clinicians with a practical and efficient tool to enhance prognosis prediction. The study utilized Lunit SCOPE IO, Lunit's AI-powered hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) whole-slide image (WSI) analyzer, to evaluate intratumoral TIL (iTIL) and tumor-related stromal TIL (sTIL) densities from WSIs of 289 patients with stage II–III colon cancer treated with surgery and adjuvant therapy. Patients with confirmed recurrences showed significantly lower sTIL densities compared to those with no recurrence. The study also identified distinct risk groups: patients with the lowest iTIL and sTIL were grouped as high-risk, patients with higher sTIL than the median as low-risk, and intermediate-risk group. These groups were predictive of recurrence-free survival time and were independently associated with clinical outcomes after adjusting for other clinical factors. This result suggests that AI-powered TIL analysis can provide practical and reliable prognostic information for stage II–III colon cancer.

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Nov 16,2023

Swing Announces Positive Early Results from Specialty Fibromyalgia Clinic

Swing announced early outcomes from Swing Care, a specialty clinic dedicated to comprehensive, evidence-based fibromyalgia treatment. The results were presented at the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) annual meeting, November 10-11. The retrospective cohort analysis assessed early results on clinical outcomes and satisfaction from patients who received virtual care for fibromyalgia from Swing Care. After one month of care, 65% of the patients reported improvement in their well-being (any improvement on Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC)). The response rate increased to ?75% among patients who received 2 and 3 months of care. “As the first specialty clinic specific to fibromyalgia management, we’re able to combine condition-specific care with novel, evidence-based treatments like Stanza’s digital behavioral therapy,” said Dr. Andrea Chadwick, Medical Director at Swing Care. Swing also presented data from an economic evaluation of Stanza, the smartphone-based digital therapeutic. The economic evaluation demonstrated considerable cost savings with the implementation of Stanza. Clinical trial data on Stanza demonstrated an average improvement of 29% on FIQ-R, leading to an estimated annual healthcare utilization savings of $4,740 (30% reduction from baseline) and $2,087 (42% reduction from baseline) on missed work.

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Nov 21,2023

Innovative digital therapeutics program shows a reduction in hospitalizations and costs for heart failure patients

The CONTINUUM program, a remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics project led by The Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), helped heart failure outpatients achieve a significant reduction in the number of emergency room visits and/or hospitalizations and demonstrated a 23% reduction in healthcare costs, according to preliminary results presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions, held November 11–13, 2023. The three-month randomized controlled trial for heart failure outpatients at risk of hospitalization evaluated the CONTINUUM program versus standard of care alone. This program included: A self-care app via smartphone or tablet where patients entered vital signs, weight, and heart failure symptoms; Remote monitoring of these data by the CHUM's clinical nurses; Digital therapeutics automated medication suggestions sent to the treating medical team; and Heart failure educational modules for patients – all based on Greybox Solutions' Takecare platform. The preliminary results show that the number of ER visits and/or hospitalizations (all cause) per patient was 0.19±0.47 for the intervention group and 0.55±0.89 for the control one. The CONTINUUM program is a partnership between the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), the CHUM Research Centre, MEDTEQ+, Greybox Solutions, Mitacs, PROMPT, and Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada).

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Nov 28,2023 TOP STORY

New Study Found Preventive Impact in Adolescents Who Frequently Used Nerivio® for Abortive Treatment of Migraine

Theranica, a neuromodulation therapeutics company, announced the peer-reviewed publication of a comprehensive clinical study showing the preventive benefits of their REN wearable, Nerivio®, for adolescents suffering from migraine. The study, published in Frontiers in Pain Research, demonstrated that frequent use of Nerivio can significantly reduce the number of monthly migraine treatment days (MMTD) in adolescents. The study analyzed prospective real-world data from 83 adolescents who used the REN wearable for acute migraine treatment at least 10 times in their first month of using REN. Over three consecutive months of treatment, the mean MMTD decreased from 12.6 in the first month to 7.4 in the third month, resulting in a total reduction of 5.2 MMTD over the 3-month period. The study also revealed the REN wearable provided a consistent acute response over a 2-hour period in at least 50% of the treated attacks, with 61.9% of participants reporting consistent pain relief post 2 hours, 24.5% reporting pain freedom, 67.4% reporting some relief from functional disability, and 41.3% reporting complete disappearance of their functional disability post 2 hours.

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Nov 27,2023

A Randomized Trial of Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery Postpartum in Type 1 Diabetes

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of closed-loop insulin delivery postpartum. In this open-label, randomized controlled trial, postpartum individuals with type 1 diabetes were randomized to hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery with the MiniMed 670G/770G system in automode or sensor-augmented pump therapy in the first 12-weeks postpartum followed by a continuation phase with closed-loop insulin delivery for all until 24 weeks postpartum. Eighteen participants completed 24 weeks of postpartum follow-up. In the randomized phase, percent time in range did not differ between groups. Participants randomized to closed-loop insulin delivery spent less time <70 mg/dL and <54 mg/dL. Time >180 mg/dL was not different between groups. In the continuation phase, those initially randomized to sensor-augmented pump therapy had less time <70 mg/dL after initiation of closed-loop insulin delivery. The closed-loop group maintained similar glycemic metrics in both study phases. In conclusion, women randomized to closed-loop insulin delivery postpartum had less hypoglycemia than those randomized to sensor-augmented pump therapy.

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