Society today is changing in the way common practices are viewed. Especially in the medical field, common procedural techniques and even the way medicine as a whole is viewed is becoming more and more technologically advanced. As a society, the United States is one of the most technological dependent and innovative countries in the world. According to the Global Innovation Index, commonly referred to as GII, in 2019, the United States was 3rd in the GII top ten countries, only behind Switzerland and Sweden (Lanvin, 2019). This means that the United States has both an economy large enough to sustain innovative activities, like creating new technologies and researching new methods, and it has an economy with diverse products and services for export that are more innovative. In many cases, this technological boom in the United States solves many problems and makes life easier, like the many “smart products” available. But, controversies regarding technological advances in the medical field are in debate over many ethical reasons. This series of civic issue blogs will be focused on dissecting some of the controversial changes in the medical field relating to innovation. The main issue addressed in this blog post is the dispute over digital therapeutics, or DTx for short.
DTx, is an emerging health discipline that uses technology to amplify or even replace active drugs in disease treatment. This practice has the ability to revolutionize how common medical procedures are monitored and create a more accessible and easy recovery plan for patients. DTx could also make medical care and pharmaceutical purchases less expensive, while also providing a more personal approach, catering specifically to the patients’ needs. However, like many other technological advances, there are drawbacks to each benefit provided by DTx.
The main purpose of DTx is to deliver direct therapeutic interventions like ways to prevent, manage, or even treat medical disorders or diseases. This would mean that there would be less doctors’ visits, and more assessment through a network. Even simple data, like the health data stored on any iPhone could be considered DTx, when used in relation to treatment options. For example, in treating more chronic illnesses, physicians can use the number of steps taken per day to assess the individual’s activity levels. When treating patients with mental illnesses like depression, data like outgoing texts, number of calls, and sleep patterns can reveal to a physician or therapist how much the individual is engaging with activities in their daily life and if they are receiving adequate social support. These “treatment” options could be a touch away on an app or on your smartwatch, but since there are so many wellness apps available, it is difficult to discern which applications are actually useful for the treatment option a patient is pursuing. Furthermore, although a simple app for treatment sounds appealing, private medical details would need to be entered into the system that many people would prefer not to be released. And since DTx is all technology based, it could be relatively easy for a hacker to gather private data using DTx.
Other than the accessibility and ease of DTx, it can decrease the cost of medical care. By allowing patients to skip out on several doctors’ appointments, private therapists, and even medical consultants, DTx could save people lots of money in the long run. But, this technology does cost a lot of money to research, and since it is still in its up-and-coming phase, there are lots of unknowns. According to an article on Healthcare IT News, “$12.5 billion into digital health ventures in 2017 and 2018… Compared with 2013, this level of investment represents an increase in funding of 230 percent, while the average funding deal size grew 67 percent over the same period” (Siwiki, 2020). This immense growth of investment is costing companies billions of dollars, so in the end, DTx is not significantly reducing all cost factors, just the ones associated with the patient.
Less expensive healthcare options appeal to most citizens, but one of the greatest incentives for using DTx is the personal approach to care. The artificial intelligence incorporated into many of these apps allow the program to learn from actions, creating a treatment program specific for you. This is helpful because those who feel that physicians may be biased towards one treatment or another will be at ease with this method. But, this also reduces the amount of patients that physicians see, if DTx were to increase in popularity. This would cause a decrease in jobs for some of the most highly trained and educated professions out there. Artificial intelligence is in-and-of-itself a controversial issue regarding replacement of human workers with machines.
In an age of rapid innovation and technological dependence, it does make sense that the medical field is shifting towards a more tech-savvy approach to treatment, diagnosis, and disease management using digital therapeutics, or DTx. As comes with any technological advancement in its early stages, there are many arguments both for and against this shift, but it is important for people as consumers to be concerned with how their medical procedures are being dealt with and to be educated on the possibilities that could become of them.
References:
Chen, Cherry. “Innovation in Digital Therapeutics.” Plug and Play, www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/resources/innovation-digital-therapeutics/.
Lanvin, Bruno. “The World’s Most Innovative Countries, 2019.” INSEAD Knowledge, 24 July 2019, knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship/the-worlds-most-innovative-countries-2019-12016.
Siwiki, Bill. “Here Are 6 Major Issues Facing Healthcare in 2019, According to PwC.” Healthcare IT News, 17 Jan. 2020, www.healthcareitnews.com/news/here-are-6-major-issues-facing-healthcare-2019-according-pwc.
“What Are Digital Therapeutics?” Digital Therapeutics Alliance, 9 May 2019, dtxalliance.org/dtx-solutions/.
I think this is going to be such an interesting blog to read! I am pretty interested in medicine — especially in accessible medicine — and I think that technology has the power to do some pretty incredible things. I think this topic is so relevant to today with the increase in telemedicine. Obviously, there are going to be things that cannot be done without traditional care, but I believe that this technology will be especially helpful with preventative care. It is crazy though that computers and machines can be more accurate than medical experts, like in the case of radiology.
I’m glad you chose this topic! I’m really interested in the applications of modern technology into the medical field, and DTx is definitely something that is on the rise. The integration of AI into various apps is definitely a cause for concern, but I think something that might serve as a potential workaround would be a combination of face-to-face assistance as well as AI to help serve patients around the globe. That being said, it is quite a costly endeavor to invest in as creating and maintaining reliable AI is a difficult. However, as time passes, I have faith that we will be able to utilize technology effectively within the medical field.
It is super scary to think about how far our society is developing in regards to new technological advancements. With the creations of these electronic and app accessible medical treatments I think that an important question concerning these would be where is the line for a patient’s privacy? I definitely would not trust a lot of people with accessing my data.
I have been very interesting in DTx ever since listening to a podcast about a digital therapy app. I can see the appeal of implementing technology into medicine, primarily reducing costs, but these potential benefits are clouding people from recognizing the risks of this technology. I can mainly see an issue with this implementation of DTx into mental health care, especially because I can see this being the post practical way to apply technology into medicine. The lack of mental health infrastructure in America has lead to waiting lists for therapy to run months long, forcing people to wait to seek help until it may be too late. But, using a AI in place of a licensed professional could end devastatingly, and can force an unhealthy relationship with their phone. I also see a serious potential for hackers to take advantage of this technology.