Earlier this year, the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA) launched a series of Executive Roundtable discussions – a new opportunity for members that brings together senior leaders from member companies to discuss pressing industry-level issues. DTA Board Members Anand Iyer and Owen McCarthy facilitated these inaugural discussions with industry leaders that focused on ensuring patient centricity, driving DTx adoption, and advancing product commercialization models.
Anand Iyer, Chief Strategy Officer at Welldoc and founding member of the DTA Board of Directors
Owen McCarthy, Co-Founder and President at MedRhythms and Chair of the DTA Board of Directors
Since its inception, DTA has been the go-to place in the industry for collaborating with fellow industry leaders. In the spirit of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ this new series of roundtables provides member company executives with yet another forum to convene on issues that we are collectively facing. In addition to the inherent value these discussions bring, DTA Task Group co-chairs and staff work to incorporate agreed upon outcomes directly into resources the Alliance develops for policymakers, payors, clinicians, and patients.
When DTA launched, the primary focus of our work as the DTA Board of Directors was to develop a strong foundation for the DTx industry. Our initial efforts in creating foundational pieces such as the baseline industry definition of a DTx and product quality core principles now enables us to evolve our focus into scaling the industry’s impact and leveraging digital therapeutics to directly improve care for more patients in more places. By working together, we can transform what is possible to achieve in medicine.
During our recent roundtable discussions, we focused on topics such as:
Digital therapeutics’ ability to help patients better engage with their own care and be empowered to achieve optimal health outcomes
Novel ways to leverage DTx therapies to personalize treatments for unmet needs
DTA’s efforts to further engage with and encourage clinicians to incorporate new therapies into clinical care decisions and pathways
Integrating DTx products into clinical care team workflows and distribution systems
Over the last decade, DTx manufacturers and ecosystem partners have invested considerable resources into building strong product quality and clinical evidence bases with the necessary rigor to ensure that products are safe, effective, and secure (and even enjoyable!) for patients to use. Collectively, DTA members have amassed significant clinical data, patient engagement statistics, and economic outcomes to demonstrate the tangible impact of DTx therapies at the patient and population health levels.
In an environment where patients are looking for better access to healthcare, particularly in light of clinician workforce demands and worsening shortages – in addition to the ongoing effects of Covid-19 – DTA members are actively working to develop and implement meaningful solutions. To achieve the greatest degree of impact, however, building trust with all key stakeholders is of paramount importance.
While a portion of this trust is built through DTx product alignment with privacy standards, cybersecurity certifications, and clear messaging, another portion of this trust is gained through DTx products’ ability to consistently deliver the appropriate therapeutic impact to patients. This aspect of trust is enabled by ensuring product quality and patient centricity, which are at the core of our industry principles – and to which all DTA members attest for any DTx product they manufacture or support.
Finally, a key aspect of building trust is engaging with key stakeholders to understand and address barriers to DTx integration and adoption. To bridge the divide between innovation and impact, DTA is expanding our community building initiatives to bring all necessary stakeholders to the table to garner trust and ground our efforts with transparency. Through these forms of collaboration, we will develop a shared vision for the future of medicine and healthcare delivery that reflects the needs, abilities, environments, and preferences of DTx product patients and end users that will deliver reliable and meaningful clinical outcomes.