Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston will pilot iGetBetter's apps to reduce hospital readmissions through remote patient monitoring and post-discharge patient engagement. The pilot will target patients that have heart disease, specifically those with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
“There is a great need for innovative approaches to relieve symptoms for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,” Dr. Neal Lakdawala, a BWH physician and the clinical lead on the pilot, said in a statement. “Disease manifestations can vary significantly on a day to day, and even minute to minute basis, but contemporary practice has not adapted to this aspect of disease. We are excited about the potential for this pilot, in which we will accelerate the pace of relief for patients using technology that allows them to report symptoms, vital signs, and step counts daily. This information will allow us to titrate their medications weekly and individualize treatment.”
With iGetBetter's system, patients can review their personalized care plans on a patient-facing HTML5 web app, designed to work on various devices, including Android and iOS ones. The app allows patients to view announcements and reminders, log their progress, manage their contact information, and communicate with care team members.
In this specific trial, patients will also be able to sync health information that they track with Withings' Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuffs and activity monitors. Withings donated the devices to Brigham and Women's for the pilot.
iGetBetter's program syncs with many other connected health apps and devices including Garmin, RunKeeper, Fitbit, Fitbug, Omron, MapMyFitness, and Moves. The company integrates the data from these devices through Validic.
“For the first time, we will be using daily patient biometric readings coupled with daily subjective inputs from patients about possible cardiac symptoms to titrate medication levels to maximum desired levels remotely without the need for multiple outpatient office visits," Dr. David Lebudzinski, Chief Medical Officer at iGetBetter said in a statement. "This potentially represents a major improvement for these hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients who will be brought up to desired medication doses faster than ever, achieving a level of therapeutic safety much faster than in the past. This should improve their quality of life and reduce their risk for adverse cardiac events very quickly."
Clinicians can use the system's provider-facing app to monitor patients' data, adjust their medications, and contact patients when necessary to avoid hospital admissions.
In February, iGetBetter raised $1.1 million, which brought the company's total funding to at least $2.6 million. At the time, the company said pilots with six health systems had already been completed, two of which signed on as customers afterward. Several more pilots were set to begin, they said at the time, for diseases including congestive heart failure, total knee and hip replacements, hypertension, diabetes, and depression.
