A unified app platform helps gastroenterologists achieve a digital transformation
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM AGA PARTNERS IN VALUE 2019
The endoscopy suite as digital transformation center
Now, in partnership with AGA, Dr. Atreja and his collaborators are planning a roll-out to multiple sites to see whether the savings and return on investment are replicated at other endoscopy sites. The vision expands beyond reducing revenue leaks to creating “digital transformation centers,” he said.
Digital health solutions such as this afford powerful opportunity for data collection, not only for practice optimization but also for research, said Dr. Atreja. He cited the example of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, where procedural details could be linked to postprocedural admission rates in the service of fine-tuning one of the endoscopist’s greatest procedural challenges.
“You can create all of those clinical trial networks for devices right on the fly,” he said. In devising a clinical trial for an app-based intervention for anxiety – prevalent in those with irritable bowel disease – Dr. Atreja and his colleagues opened trial enrollment at 8 a.m., hoping to enroll 20 patients. By the end of the day, over 200 had enrolled. “We over-subscribed our trial by 10 times” in 1 day using the digital platform, he said.
Dr. Atreja is currently working with the American College of Cardiology on digital solutions for home monitoring of heart failure patients. “Partnerships with other health systems and societies are key for learning and rapid transformation – a rising tide lifts all boats,” said Dr. Atreja. “Digital medicine is not digital medicine. It is medicine. Because the practice of medicine is medicine.”
Dr. Atreja reported receiving funding from AbbVie, Janssen, Pfizer, Takeda, Astrazeneca, UCB, and Roche; the RxUniverse app has been licensed from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to Rx.Health.
AGA has partnered with RxHealth to support gastroenterologists’ ability to provide patient care and improve patient adherence by creating up-to-date, evidenced-based digital tools that can be prescribed at point of care. Dr. John I. Allen, the Editor in Chief of GI & Hepatology News, is on the advisory board of RxHealth and recused himself from review and approval of this story. Learn more about the program and how to become a pioneer site at https://rx.health/GI or Engage@Rx.Health .
