Future Health | Digital therapy yesterday, today, and tomorrow

With the continuous change of technologies such as the Internet, the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, digital technology is further integrated with the ecological ecology of the medical industry. "Digital therapy" has also emerged. As a new conceptual medical method or digital health solution, it has attracted the attention of a large number of companies and capital. It is one of the winds in the past few years.

The discussion around it has not stopped, and its definition and business model are still evolving. "Future Health" will focus on digital therapy, inviting Yang Leigang, general manager of the whole disease management and digital therapy center, Cai Yang, the head of the product director of the Medical Union Group, the founder and CEO of Zheng'an Health Zhang Hao, editor -in -chief of Health, analyzed the digital therapy yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Three guests have deep perception of the changes in the digital therapy industry in recent years. Yang Leigang said that the concept of digital therapy has become popular in recent years, but in fact, related products can be traced back to around 2000, and the entire industry has developed for a long time. Early products are similar to independent medical equipment software, which slowly evolved into a vertical segment. Now in the industry -based means of information, it is driven by software, and prevention intervention or management therapy is a digital therapy on the basis of evidence -based medicine. Enterprises in the layout include both instruments and Internet medical directions, as well as ecological platform -oriented enterprises such as Weisai.

Cai Yang reviewed the evolution of digital therapy products. Four or five years ago, the products of digital therapy are very simple. For example, a single -point service such as blood pressure is a digital therapy. After 2019, the connotation of digital therapy has expanded to comprehensive management of diseases, such as diabetes management and hepatitis B patient management. A group of products that have penetrated into the disease now have begun to appear. Common insomnia treatment, autism treatment, etc.

From the change of the product to reflect the continuous upgrade of the kernel of the digital therapy. From the early single -point service to the comprehensive disease management, and then deepened the disease diagnosis and treatment. Digital therapy is becoming more and more professional in this process, and the higher the value of patients.

Liu Xiaogang also feels the same. He believes that the current digital therapy is more like medicine, which used to manage services. When the company was just established, they also saw a lot of digital therapy for chronic disease management through wearable devices, and all stayed on the surface of the treatment. The current products need to be deepened to the whole course, allowing patients to obviously improve or directly cure a certain symptoms. Its R & D logic corresponds to the indication of a certain segment, which verify the effectiveness of the product through clinical efficacy, which is the same as drug development.

With the evolution of digital therapy, commercialization has also become a key concern in the industry. Cai Yang said that the commercialization of digital therapy is still being explored. At present, the payment party includes two types: medical insurance and self -funded. For digital therapy manufacturers, the path of medical insurance is existence, and is admitted to the hospital like the current equipment and drugs. However, the policies, supervision, and implementation of digital therapy products are still being explored, and this path is progressing very slowly.

It is relatively more opportunities to have at their own expense. Digital therapy manufacturers and Internet hospital channels reach patients with a feasible path. But based on his experience, the premise of successful commercialization is that digital therapy products have clear treatment value. "As an open platform, we have contacted the products on the market in large quantities. Many of them are effective in the statistical sense. It is not clear to implement the treatment effect on individual patients. Patients with such effects obviously cannot pay for it." Cai Yang said that Cai Yang said

In his opinion, only when digital therapy has a certain leader in traditional treatment, there is a chance of commercialization. In the case where efficacy, time cost, and money cost, digital therapy products can reach patients through Internet hospital channels, running for commercial closed loops.

"Upstream product suppliers plus downstream Internet hospitals and physical hospitals constitute the basis of the current digital therapy industry chain." Liu Xiaogang said. He has been promoting such attempts with Weisai and Medical Union. Especially on the side of Weisai, the entire paid chain has been initially run, and the patient has also achieved a good treatment effect. Based on the Internet medical platform, on the one hand, it saves the original circulation link, and on the other hand, it can be guaranteed in terms of service, efficacy and experience.

For the payment party, Yang Lei just saw more opportunities. The first is combined with third -party insurance formats. If the entire disease management of digital therapy can significantly improve the patient's course, it can reduce the cost of commercial insurance and control the compensation rate. At present, they have tried to cooperate with commercial insurance during pregnancy management, and then they are ready to further extend to postoperative management in the field of God. There are also some progress on the medical insurance end. He mentioned that the documents of the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau have recently been charged for remote management of diabetes and included in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement.

Yang Leigang said that with the emergence of more professional digital therapy companies in the future and providing patients with practical value to solve clinical pain points, the hospital and medical insurance end will gradually deepen the product recognition of digital therapy. This is definitely a long -term trend. Of course, there must be many conceptual companies in the middle, just like the Internet from starting to today, the industrial chain has also replaced several rounds. The diversification of the payment side and the emergence of the digital therapy ecological platform can promote the long -term development of the industry.

Cai Yang also said that digital therapy will have the opportunity to explode the market before the clinic in the next few years.Patients generally go to the hospital when they are very uncomfortable, but in fact, many symptoms have appeared before.Different digital therapy is very suitable for application in the pre -diagnosis due to low cost and high cost, so that the symptoms of patients can be significantly improved.The upper limit of the pre -diagnosis market size is much higher than the consultation, so digital therapy has huge growth potential.Author: Yu Shiqi, Zhang Hao

- END -