Prodan Alexandra, Deimel Lucas, Ahlqvist Johannes, Birov Strahil, Thiel Rainer, Toivanen Meeri, Kolitsi Zoi, Kalra Dipak
empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Bonn, Germany.
Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA, Helsinki, Finland.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Apr 12;9:854665. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.854665. eCollection 2022.
INTRODUCTION: Digital therapeutics (DTx) can be a valuable contribution to the successful scale up of P5 Medicine (personalized, participatory, predictive, preventive, precision medicine) as they offer powerful means of delivering personalization and active patient participation in disease self-management. We investigated how the approval and adoption of DTx within health systems have been approached in five selected European countries and regions, with a view to proposing success factors scaling up their adoption. METHODOLOGY: Preliminary research established best countries or region candidates as being Germany, UK, France, Belgium, and the Spanish Region of Catalonia. The research was informed by a literature review, interviews with public bodies and industry, and a multi-stakeholder workshop to validate the findings and fill in existing gaps. RESULTS: To authorize the use of digital technologies, the countries and regions passed legislation and developed policy instruments, appointed bodies to assess and certify the products and formalized mechanisms for permitting reimbursement. While DTx is not a commonly used nomenclature, there are digital health technology types defined that have similar requirements as DTx. Assessment and certification frameworks are usually built around the Medical Device Regulation with additional criteria. Reimbursement considerations often observe reimbursement of therapeutic devices and/or medicines. To be integrated into reimbursement systems, countries require manufacturers to demonstrate clinical value and cost-effectiveness. As there are currently very few DTx approved in practice, there is resistance toward clinical acceptance and organizational change, and change management is highly needed to integrate DTx into healthcare systems. The integration and secondary use of DTx data is not encountered in daily practice. Although some enablers exist, there remain technical and legal barriers. DISCUSSION: DTx strategies should be considered as an integral part of digital health strategies and legislation, and specific DTx pathways with clear and transparent assessment and guidelines that balance regulation and innovation should be defined. To help manufacturers, countries should recommend and list methods that are widely accepted and ensure scientific robustness, aligned to the MDR requirements to support transfer of relevant and comparable data across countries. To facilitate rapid uptake of innovation, countries should add flexibility to the framework by allowing temporary market authorization to enable data collection that can support the clinical and socio-economic evaluation and data gathering phase. Certification should trigger rapid price setting and reimbursement mechanisms, and dynamic ways to adjust price and reimbursement levels in time should be established. Relevant stakeholders should be approached on the potential impacts of DTx through transparent communication and change management strategies should be considered. These findings should be validated with a wider range of stakeholders.
引言:数字疗法(DTx)对于成功推广P5医学(个性化、参与式、预测性、预防性、精准医学)具有重要价值,因为它们提供了实现个性化以及让患者积极参与疾病自我管理的有力手段。我们调查了五个选定的欧洲国家和地区在卫生系统中对数字疗法的审批和采用情况,旨在提出扩大其采用率的成功因素。 方法:初步研究确定德国、英国、法国、比利时和西班牙加泰罗尼亚地区为最佳国家或地区候选对象。该研究参考了文献综述、与公共机构及行业的访谈,并举办了一次多利益相关方研讨会以验证研究结果并填补现有空白。 结果:为了授权使用数字技术,这些国家和地区通过了立法并制定了政策工具,指定机构对产品进行评估和认证,并建立了允许报销的正式机制。虽然数字疗法并非常用术语,但已定义的数字健康技术类型具有与数字疗法类似的要求。评估和认证框架通常围绕医疗器械法规构建,并附加其他标准。报销考量通常参照治疗设备和/或药品的报销情况。为了纳入报销系统,各国要求制造商证明临床价值和成本效益。由于目前实际获批的数字疗法非常少,因此临床接受度和组织变革存在阻力,非常需要变革管理来将数字疗法整合到医疗保健系统中。数字疗法数据的整合和二次使用在日常实践中尚未出现。虽然存在一些推动因素,但技术和法律障碍仍然存在。 讨论:数字疗法策略应被视为数字健康策略和立法的一个组成部分,应定义具有明确和透明评估以及平衡监管与创新的指南的特定数字疗法途径。为了帮助制造商,各国应推荐并列出被广泛接受的方法,并确保科学稳健性,符合医疗器械法规要求,以支持跨国传输相关且可比的数据。为了促进创新的快速采用,各国应通过允许临时市场授权来增加框架的灵活性,以便能够收集支持临床和社会经济评估及数据收集阶段的数据。认证应触发快速定价和报销机制,并应建立及时调整价格和报销水平的动态方式。应通过透明沟通与相关利益相关者探讨数字疗法的潜在影响,并应考虑变革管理策略。这些研究结果应在更广泛的利益相关者群体中进行验证。
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