By 2025, the digital therapeutics market is projected to reach $7.8 billion. These are advanced uses of often established technologies to treat things that were often previously thought to be untreatable. There’s tech that can treat the tremors from Parkinson’s Disease, apps to help treat addiction, and even video games to treat Multiple Sclerosis, Autism, and more. By using existing technologies in new combinations, researchers have unlocked the future of treatment for many of the toughest cases out there.
Digital Therapeutics involves interventions driven by tech and software programs, with applications in treating both physiological and neurobehavioral conditions. When combined with conventional treatments digital therapies improve outcomes, explore new options to meet unaddressed needs, and could reduce the necessity of medications overall or at the very least support the efficacy of said medications. The scope of the implementation in enhancing or replacing treatment plans is vast. Ranging from common and rare conditions alike applications include diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, central nervous, respiratory, and gastrointestinal.
A notable use of Digital Therapeutics is tremor relief. With the combination of surgical tools and digital software, surgeons are starting to treat patients with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease without invasive surgery. Enter Exablate Neuro, an augmented Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine that combines several digital technologies to get the job done. Using high-intensity ultrasound, the Vim point is blasted to reduce tremors and to see through skin and bones. The MRI guides the procedure by also rendering an image of inside the patient and monitoring their temperature in the localized area of treatment. The patient also wears a specialized cooling helmet to control their skull temperature to prevent overheating from the ultrasonics. This amazing technological spread grants a lower risk of infection, shorter recovery times, and no collateral tissue damage. All the while causing temporary and minor side effects such as tingling in fingers and tongue, and difficulty with sense of balance.
Do you view video games as a way to recharge and rejuvenate? Some physicians are finding benefits in specialized games like Akili Interactive’s Selective Stimulus Management Engine (SSMETM) to build cognitive functions. They aid in improving prominent skills like working memory, executive functioning (ability to manage emotions, attention, and planning), and selective attention (processing, filtering and responding to competing stimuli). SSMETM displays gameplay that makes the player use key skills and adapts to each player’s skill level with the aid of algorithms. Sensory and motor stimuli are deployed to target and activate key areas of the brain to build new neurological connections through continued use. The outcome is symptom relief of ADHD, Autism, Multiple sclerosis, and even Major depression. New games are under development to combat Lupus, ICU delirium, and traumatic brain injuries. These games adapt to the player in order to give them the best chance at the desired result.
That’s just the tip of the iceburg, among the cutting-edge digital therapeutics we can find digital cognitive therapy for Substance Abuse Disorder, VR for pain management, and neurologic music therapy to improve motor speech and cognitive function after disease or injury. Digital diagnosis is also emerging from the fold. In progress are eye-tracking software to streamline autism diagnosis and symptoms levels, and voice markers to track Alzheimer’s, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. There are even pain management apps that specifically target migraines, one of the toughest neurological conditions to treat, with behavior modification to change the way a patient’s body responds to pain signals. All these advances are sure to be the first of many innovations that greatly improve our overall health.
Say hello to better health, and check out digital therapeutics here!
Read next: Here's how people are still eating healthy under social distancing (Infographic)
Digital Therapeutics involves interventions driven by tech and software programs, with applications in treating both physiological and neurobehavioral conditions. When combined with conventional treatments digital therapies improve outcomes, explore new options to meet unaddressed needs, and could reduce the necessity of medications overall or at the very least support the efficacy of said medications. The scope of the implementation in enhancing or replacing treatment plans is vast. Ranging from common and rare conditions alike applications include diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, central nervous, respiratory, and gastrointestinal.
A notable use of Digital Therapeutics is tremor relief. With the combination of surgical tools and digital software, surgeons are starting to treat patients with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease without invasive surgery. Enter Exablate Neuro, an augmented Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine that combines several digital technologies to get the job done. Using high-intensity ultrasound, the Vim point is blasted to reduce tremors and to see through skin and bones. The MRI guides the procedure by also rendering an image of inside the patient and monitoring their temperature in the localized area of treatment. The patient also wears a specialized cooling helmet to control their skull temperature to prevent overheating from the ultrasonics. This amazing technological spread grants a lower risk of infection, shorter recovery times, and no collateral tissue damage. All the while causing temporary and minor side effects such as tingling in fingers and tongue, and difficulty with sense of balance.
Do you view video games as a way to recharge and rejuvenate? Some physicians are finding benefits in specialized games like Akili Interactive’s Selective Stimulus Management Engine (SSMETM) to build cognitive functions. They aid in improving prominent skills like working memory, executive functioning (ability to manage emotions, attention, and planning), and selective attention (processing, filtering and responding to competing stimuli). SSMETM displays gameplay that makes the player use key skills and adapts to each player’s skill level with the aid of algorithms. Sensory and motor stimuli are deployed to target and activate key areas of the brain to build new neurological connections through continued use. The outcome is symptom relief of ADHD, Autism, Multiple sclerosis, and even Major depression. New games are under development to combat Lupus, ICU delirium, and traumatic brain injuries. These games adapt to the player in order to give them the best chance at the desired result.
That’s just the tip of the iceburg, among the cutting-edge digital therapeutics we can find digital cognitive therapy for Substance Abuse Disorder, VR for pain management, and neurologic music therapy to improve motor speech and cognitive function after disease or injury. Digital diagnosis is also emerging from the fold. In progress are eye-tracking software to streamline autism diagnosis and symptoms levels, and voice markers to track Alzheimer’s, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. There are even pain management apps that specifically target migraines, one of the toughest neurological conditions to treat, with behavior modification to change the way a patient’s body responds to pain signals. All these advances are sure to be the first of many innovations that greatly improve our overall health.
Say hello to better health, and check out digital therapeutics here!
Read next: Here's how people are still eating healthy under social distancing (Infographic)