REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barton Health is the first health system to implement Proteus Discover, a Digital Medicine offering that activates patients and enables rapid assessment and personalized treatment plans from their medical provider. The deployment marks the first commercial implementation of Proteus Discover in the United States after the completion of successful clinical trials. Proteus Discover offers an innovative approach to improving health outcomes for patients with long-term chronic conditions who are having challenges managing their medications. The first implementation is focused on uncontrolled and co-morbid hypertension.
The burden of chronic disease is a far-reaching global health issue, affecting approximately 117 million people in the United States alone.1 Patients with uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia are at high-risk for cardiovascular events and costlier interventions. In the United States, 50% of patients have uncontrolled disease despite treatment.2 Medication non-adherence and lack of effective or timely treatment optimization are two key factors explaining uncontrolled disease and were estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system $290 billion annually in 2009.3
“Patients struggle with medication adherence for various reasons. When a non-adherent patient is not seeing results and the physician believes a patient is taking a medication, this may lead to unnecessary changes in treatment which can be costly for the patient and the health system,” says Dr. Purvance, Chief Executive Officer of Barton Health. “This new product offering provides a data-driven communication channel between the medical provider and the patient that empowers the patient to take the appropriate dose of medication and better understand the importance of daily activity levels and other lifestyle changes.”
Proteus Discover, which utilizes FDA-cleared technology from Proteus including ingestible sensors, has been clinically validated in this critical cardiovascular patient population. Barton Health has chosen Proteus Discover as a tool to activate patients and their physicians with the personalized insights needed to reach their individual treatment goal.
“Patients are seeking easier ways to engage in their own care; healthcare providers are looking to more effectively manage chronic conditions,” said Andrew Thompson, CEO of Proteus Digital Health. “Barton is among a group of pioneering health systems addressing these opportunities head on by adding digital health solutions that extend their physical footprint, laying the groundwork for a durable population health strategy.”
How Proteus Discover works: A patient’s medications are co-encapsulated through specialty pharmacy services with a Proteus ingestible sensor, which is the size of a grain of sand and is activated when it reaches the stomach. On activation, the ingestible sensor communicates with a small sensor patch worn by the patient. The patch records the time of ingestion and personalized data such as heart rate, activity, and rest. This information is then relayed electronically to the patient through an application on a mobile device, which also provides support and insight to the patient and allows them to share their data with their healthcare professional. Physicians and their care teams can access a web-based physician dashboard where they are provided with objective data that can inform personalized treatment decisions.
About Barton Health
Barton Health is a non-profit, rural health system that provides high quality, compassionate care to Lake Tahoe residents and the area’s visitors. Since it opened in 1963, Barton Memorial Hospital has expanded its health and wellness services to 62 licensed acute care beds as well as physician and outpatient facilities, including cardiology, cosmetic surgery, emergency medicine, family practice, general surgery, gastroenterology, gynecology, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics, otolaryngology, orthopedics, pediatrics, psychiatry, rheumatology, and sleep studies. Barton Health is committed to serving its active community with an emphasis on sports medicine and trauma care services. Barton Health’s Tahoe Center for Orthopedics is nationally recognized and provides comprehensive services for ordinary patients and elite athletes. Barton Memorial Hospital is the only designated trauma center in Tahoe Basin and Carson Valley, and is accredited by The Joint Commission. For more information, visit bartonhealth.org.
About Proteus Discover®
Proteus Discover is a Medicines as a Service offering that includes drugs that communicate when they’ve been taken, wearable sensors that capture physiologic response, applications that support patient activation, physician decision making, and data analytics to serve the needs of health systems. The FDA cleared ingestible sensor, which is the size of a grain of sand, is co-encapsulated (placed into a capsule) with the patient’s prescribed medications by a pharmacist, based on a healthcare provider’s prescription. When a patient takes the co-encapsulated medication, the ingestible sensor sends a signal to the small wearable patch, which records the time each pill is swallowed and also collects physiologic metrics such as heart rate, physical activity, and rest. While the co-encapsulation model is on the market today, Proteus and the company’s partners are undergoing further FDA review for a panel of Digital Medicines, where the ingestible sensor is directly integrated into the medication.
About Proteus Digital Health®
Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., Proteus is privately held and funded by leading institutional and corporate investors, including: Novartis, Otsuka, Oracle and Sutter Health. For more information, visit www.proteus.com.
References:
1. CDC. Chronic Diseases: The Leading Causes of Death and Disability in the United States. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/
2. Rubin RR. Adherence to pharmacologic therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Am J Med. 2005;118:27S-34S.
3. New England Healthcare Institute. Thinking outside the pillbox: a system-wide approach to improving patient medication adherence for chronic disease. A NEHI Research Brief - August 2009. Available at: http://www.nehi.net/writable/publication_files/file/pa_issue_brief_final.pdf