A new survey of more than 160 life science and pharmaceutical industry executives finds that digital health initiatives will play an increasingly important role in health care, says Durham mobile health startup Validic. In fact, 97 percent of those surveyed say they will increase use of digital data over the coming five years.

From medication adherence to finding new drugs and helping drive down drug development costs, contract research organization and other executives told Validic that digital data is already being collected in 60 percent of their clinical trials.

“The use of digital health technologies and patient-generated health data is becoming a proven necessity to the operational efficiency and patient-centricity of the pharmaceutical industry, said Validic CEO and Co-Founder Drew Schiller about the survey. “This remotely-collected data has the potential to reduce patient burden allowing for more passive engagement and data collection, while also improving the accuracy of data patients contribute during and after trials.” Validic will be sponsoring and exhibiting

  • Validic exec to speak at WRAL TechWire event: Chris Edwards, Validic CMO, is among the speakers participating in WRAL TechWire’s digital health event on Sept. 27.

The survey results were released Monday ahead of a life science conference in Boston.

Validic’s technology platform designed to integrate digital data from multiple sources and devices is already utilized in 50 countries and includes information from more than 223 million people. Triangle partners include Quintiles, the world’s largest life science services company.

Here are key findings from the report as published by Validic:

  • The role of digital health data is changing. While the current use of digital health technologies in clinical trials is mostly focused on subject recruitment, remote patient monitoring and medication adherence, patient communities are expected to become one of the biggest growth opportunities for digital health in pharma. The study found engagement levels within these patient communities facilitates improved trial recruitment and post-market research. Additionally, medication adherence was flagged as the most important outcome and data point for drug developers by over two-thirds of respondents; while 100% of respondents concluded digital health technology improves adherence.
  • Reducing drug development costs is increasingly vital. As drug development costs continue to escalate, pharmaceutical companies are facing increasing pressure to reduce trials costs, streamline trial processes and demonstrate real-world efficacy to a variety of stakeholders. These factors contribute significantly to driving the bottom line, cutting drug development costs and ensuring adequate return on investment – all necessities to remain competitive. By automating the collection of real-time data from digital health technologies, researchers are able to capture more accurate, holistic and objective participant data in less time with fewer resources.
  • Chronic disease management remains important. Chronic conditions will be an increasing focus for pharma and biotech companies due in large part to their continuously growing prevalence among the U.S. population. As digital health has already played a crucial role in the prevention of chronic disease, seventy percent surveyed indicated patient-generated health data could have the greatest impact on improving treatments for chronically ill populations.
  • Technical challenges for data access have been addressed. While the use of digital health technologies and PGHD in clinical trials is relatively new and stakeholders still have some lingering concerns, the technical and interoperability barriers for introducing these devices into trials have been overcome. Digital health is rapidly growing in size and scope; and with that, device manufacturers and app developers are entering the market with new tools and data points. Knowing which devices to use, how to access and integrate the data, and best practices for analyzing the data still remain concerns for respondents.

Read more from the survey at:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/validic-reveals-findings-from-2016-global-pharma-and-biotech-survey-on-digital-health-300330012.html