Future Applications

Proteus Digital Health is working to create a new category of products and services that has the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of existing pharmaceutical treatments, leading to fundamentally new care paradigms. We call the category Digital Medicines.

Our vision is that Digital Medicines will be the same pharmaceuticals you take today, with one small change: each pill will also contain a tiny sensor that can communicate, via our Digital Health Feedback System, vital information about your medication-taking behaviors and how your body is responding.

As a result, you could tell if you’re taking your medicines as prescribed, while at the same time receiving unprecedented feedback on your physiological response to treatment. This offers a path to improved health. Currently, over 50% of people don’t get full benefit from the pharmaceuticals they use, because they take the wrong dose or have trouble consistently following their prescriptions. [1] The information from Digital Medicines could help you better manage your health each and every day, and you would share this information with family members, clinicians and other caregivers, allowing for better informed treatment decisions.

Although we have completed clinical trials in various therapeutic areas, Digital Medicines are still under development and have not received FDA approval. Here are some Digital Medicines we are working on:

Heart Failure care

Heart failure is a challenging condition that often results in hospitalizations. Today, many people discharged from a hospital are often re-admitted shortly thereafter due to complications and difficulty following their challenging new care regimens. Currently, close to one quarter of all heart failure patients are re-admitted to hospital within a 30-day period. [2]

We are working on a product that involves digital medicines used in heart failure treatment combined with telemetered devices used to capture related information. Our hope is to help patients stay in control, in better communication with their clinicians, and safely in the comfort of their own homes.

Central Nervous System care

Diseases of the central nervous system (including schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, and Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease) present a variety of challenges to both adherence and health tracking. People suffering from these conditions have to maintain very strict health regimens to keep their conditions under control. Lisa Halpern is in recovery after a long battle with mental illness. She thinks our upcoming product would have helped her significantly. Our conversation with Lisa.

Transplant care

We are exploring ways to help transplant patients who take medicines that suppress their immune systems. Given the inherent risk in suppressing immune response, tracking both adherence and basic health parameters using digital medicines may have a significant impact on the success of organ transplants, especially once a patient has left the hospital environment.

1.Osterberg L, Blaschke T. Adherence to medication. N Engl J Med. 2005 Aug 4;353(5):487-97
2. Kociol R, Peterson E, Hammill G et al. National Survey of Hospital Strategies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions. Circulation: Heart Failure, 2012 Aug. http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org