Adaptive Self-Management Supports Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

February 2nd is Rheumatoid Awareness Day, a day dedicated to recognizing the people living with rheumatoid arthritis or rheumatoid disease, promoting education and awareness about the challenges of living with and managing this lifelong chronic disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a complex chronic condition where the immune system attacks itself, causing damage to organs and joint tissues. Rheumatoid arthritis affects approximately 1.3 million individuals in the U.S. – the Rheumatoid Patient Foundation estimates that 1-2% of individuals globally suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, and there is no known cure.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that requires a daily routine to effectively treat. Every day, a patient suffering from rheumatoid arthritis has a central duty to play in their treatment process. This makes communication between patients and clinicians very important for individuals suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. A clinician isn’t there every day to oversee treatment progression – usually, it’s on either the patient or the caregiver to diligently track treatment responses so they may effectively follow up with clinicians. Because treatment protocols vary among individuals suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, a lack of clarity between patients and clinicians can have serious consequences, or cause setbacks. Clear and consistent communication of a patient’s health is necessary to provide to a clinician, otherwise, they may not be fully aware of how a certain treatment is affecting a patient.

The implementation of digital health applications in healthcare has enabled clinicians to continuously monitor patients. By constantly keeping up to date with health metrics and patient feedback, a patient can potentially receive a more proactive and effective treatment plan. For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the ability to be in constant communication with clinicians is invaluable. Health education within these applications can supplement and clarify information given by a clinician.

In a six-month clinical study, Adhera Health tested the feasibility and acceptance of our own digital health program to support rheumatic and musculoskeletal patients. Built using the Adhera® Precision Digital Companion™ Platform, the Adhera Rheumatology Digital Program had a measurable, positive impact in supporting patients with rheumatoid arthritis and spondylarthritis (SpA) by leveraging an adaptive self-management solution together with electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePROs). Adaptive Self-Management is based on offering individuals transdiagnostic interventions, which are a type of health intervention that addresses the three core health dimensions of the person: social, physical, and mental conditions.

Adhera Health’s adaptive self-management solution empowers individuals through highly personalized interventions, recommendations, and contextualized education. By collecting data using wearable sensors and ePROs, the AI-based Adhera Health Recommender System offers recommendations and education most relevant to each specific user. After examining patient responses from our study, we found that most were satisfied with our solution, with 34/35 individuals acknowledging they would recommend it. The study was supported by AbbVie and the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and led by Diego Benevent Nuñez and Dr. Chaimada Plasencia-Rodriguez, Sr., from the University Hospital of La Paz, and Luis Fernández Luque, Adhera Health´s Chief Scientific Officer. Results were presented at the ACR Convergence 2022 Conference and the EULAR 2022 Conference.

By focusing on empowering patients and caregivers through personalized recommendations and education, we can increase patient treatment adherence, thereby improving treatment success rates. And by increasing the number of interactions between clinicians and patients, treatment protocols can be more easily optimized for better health outcomes overall. Our goal is to make living with chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis as manageable as possible and to promote better lives and greater health outcomes for these individuals.

The Rheumatoid Patient Foundation envisions a future where no one suffers from rheumatoid disease. We can reach that future with education, awareness, and patient-centered research. To learn more about rheumatoid arthritis, and to find out how you can help, check out the RPF at https://rheum4us.org/

To read more about the results of the study, visit PLOS Digital Health - Monitoring chronic inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases mixing virtual and face-to-face assessments

Providing Caregivers with Emotional and Self-Management Support

How Innovative Digital Programs are Helping Caregivers Get Healthier Outcomes

Caregivers are a vital element to our society, and they are overwhelmed; many caregivers are experiencing something known as caregiver burnout. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this is a term that refers to the feelings of mental and physical exhaustion driven by the arduous and often overwhelming duties of a caregiver. The life of any caregiver comes with serious difficulties; it can be hard to find enough time for yourself when you spend so much time focused on somebody else. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving & AARP, the majority of family caregivers spend approximately 24.4 hours per week providing care; 25% of family caregivers spend 41 hours or more per week providing care. All this time creates a significant financial burden atop physical and mental exhaustion. Caregivers need our help.

At Adhera Health, it is our goal to empower people who are managing chronic diseases and that especially means supporting caregivers; we want to give individuals tools that they can use to reduce the stress that comes with the challenging role of being a caregiver. As our understanding of health continues to evolve alongside our technology, it’s our job to use the new tools we have available to continue adapting and solving our society’s health problems. Through our research, we have found that digital health solutions are becoming more effective and cost-efficient to manage an individual’s mental health. Recent digital health solutions are showing promising advantages as self-management support tools for improving wellbeing and behaviors related to treatments. We have also found that the emotional distress of caregivers (i.e., parents) of children with long-term conditions affects their child’s health behaviors, including treatment adherence.

Back in September, we published a study conducted for our caregiver support program, Adhera Caring, which focuses on family caregivers of patients. This study centered around the caregivers of patients receiving growth hormone treatment (GHt) and it aimed to examine the usability of a mobile digital health solution and the feasibility of a digital health intervention designed to promote the emotional and mental wellbeing of caregivers of children undergoing GHt.

"The results of the Adhera® Caring study show that improving lifestyle and mental health coping skills for caregivers of children with long-term conditions using digital health tools can have a direct impact on a caregiver and their child's quality of life,” said Antonio de Arriba, MD, Ph.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at the University Hospital of Miguel Servet. By improving the mental health of caregivers and providing them with resources and education, we can improve patient health outcomes. By focusing on family caregivers, we are not only helping them, even though they do need our help; by focusing on caregivers, we are helping patients.

The Adhera Caring program is built on top of the Adhera® Precision Digital Companion™ Platform that includes two major components: adaptive self-management content powered by a health recommender system. The personalized subject matter is delivered via a mobile app and includes psycho-educational content, cognitive behavioral therapy activities for mental wellbeing, and personalized motivational messages. The health recommender system is built using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to select and personalize motivational messages making them more relevant and effective.

Caregiver emotional distress has been found to be a driver of poor adherence and self-management skills in pediatrics, growth disorders, and type 1 diabetes. This relationship is well established. By making use of digital health solutions, we can help both patients and caregivers, so they may better navigate the blind spots that are difficult to find for individuals suffering from chronic diseases. Caregivers work so hard for their patients. The advantages that digital health solutions offer us are clear ­– it is time we provide caregivers with more advanced tools so that they can do their job more effectively and efficiently. By improving the mental health of family caregivers and providing them with resources and education, we improve patient treatment adherence, leading to better health outcomes. We understand the strength of family caregivers – it is our duty to empower them.

COVIDAI - WEARABLE PLATFORM FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF COVID-19 COMPLICATIONS IN CHRONICALLY ILL PATIENTS USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The COVIDAI project aims to develop an easily scalable product that allows, by using behavioral change methodologies together with Artificial Intelligence-based algorithms, to improve the welfare and quality of life of people who are going through a situation of isolation as a result of suffering from an illness, whether chronic or infectious.

This Project has been funded by CDTI with a grant co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the “Multiregional Operational Program of Spain 2014-2020” and by the Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA).

Objective:

Place of execution: Seville, Spain.

Time of execution: 2020-2022.

Budget: 459,682.00€.

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

A way to make Europe

COVIDAI - PLATAFORMA WEARABLE PARA EL DIAGNÓSTICO TEMPRANO DE COMPLICACIONES DE COVID-19 EN PACIENTES CON ENFERMEDADES CRÓNICAS MEDIANTE EL USO DE INTELIGENCIA ARTIFICIAL

El proyecto COVIDAI tiene como objetivo desarrollar un producto fácilmente escalable que permita, haciendo uso de metodologías de cambio de comportamiento junto a algoritmos basados en Inteligencia Artificial, mejorar el bienestar y la calidad de vida de las personas que estén pasando por una situación de aislamiento como consecuencia del padecimiento de una enfermedad, ya sea de carácter crónico o infeccioso.

Este proyecto ha sido financiado por CDTI con una ayuda cofinanciada por el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) a través del “Programa Operativo Plurirregional de España 2014-2020” y por la Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía (CTA).

Objetivo:

Lugar de ejecución: Sevilla, España.

Plazo de ejecución: 2020-2022.

Presupuesto: 459.682,00€.

Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)

Una manera de hacer Europa