Digital chronic disease management platform Health2Sync has signed a memorandum of understanding with pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca to launch a digital patient management programme for patients with chronic kidney disease.

The digital programme seeks to promote the early diagnosis of CKD and optimise everyday CKD care using Health2Sync's patient management platform.

According to a media release, the latest version of the patient management platform can automatically filter and categorise patients into different groups based on their lab reports. Through the platform, doctors can review the analysis and long-term data trends of patients who are at risk of CKD, helping inform their medical interventions. 

The platform has a companion mobile app that patients can use to consult their care providers about adjustments in their medication regimens. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Taiwan is spending almost $1.8 billion each year on CKDs, making it the costliest disease for the National Health Insurance system. According to Claudio Longo, president of AstraZeneca Taiwan, the company hopes its partnership with Health2Sync will help bring down healthcare expenditure by empowering doctors to identify patients early and better manage their conditions. The early identification of CKD may also help prevent its progression and reduce the risk of complications.

Health2Sync is developing a portfolio of digital therapeutics that currently includes insulin management and behaviour change. Its latest partnership with AstraZeneca represents its first foray into CKD. 

CEO and co-founder Ed Deng said the years of experience in helping improve outcomes for diabetes patients using the Health2Sync app "have proven that data integration and digital intervention can be further applied to other chronic diseases".

THE LARGER TREND

Two years ago, AstraZeneca entered into a research partnership with New York-based Renalytix AI, which involved the use of the AI-powered in-vitro diagnostic platform KidneyIntelX to gather patient data to generate a patient's risk score for CKD. The risk score can assist doctors in predicting the disease progression and inform treatments to prevent kidney function decline.

Another CKD-focused digital initiative in Asia is the My Kidney Journey website which was developed and launched by dialysis care solutions developer Baxter Asia Pacific in November last year. The website is an online repository of information on CKD to support patients and their families and carers.

In other news, Health2Sync signed a new partnership with Sanofi some weeks ago to bring its digital solutions for insulin management to Japan. In March, the Taiwanese firm tied up with Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk to integrate its mobile disease management app with the NovoPen 6 and NovoPen Echo Plus.