Introducing MyTherapy for Asthma: An Open Platform to Support People Living with Asthma
With ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ we are creating a dedicated and open support offering for thousands of MyTherapy users living with asthma. Read what's coming, and how partners from life science and research can join in
- Thousands of users are already managing their asthma treatment using the MyTherapy app, most of them using the app not just for Asthma but for managing co-morbidities, too
- With ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ we are launching a support offering within MyTherapy that is tailored to the needs of Asthma patients.
- ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ combines asthma-specific patient support with the proven and tested medication and disease management features of MyTherapy, the app that millions of patients use several times a day
- We are taking an open platform approach and adding specific tools and educational content together with partners from pharma, academia, and the DTx world, thereby accounting for the diverse needs of patients living with asthma
On average, MyTherapy users are active in the app six times a day. This high level of engagement is a result of countless iterations and the continuous, close cooperation with people living with chronic diseases. This engagement stems from functionality that is designed to help people with any disease, such as managing medications, tracking symptoms, managing appointments, or collaborating with caregivers.
There is a second level of value for users that we are in a position to provide: Serving the support needs that are specific to the disease that a patient is living with. With ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’, we are launching our third disease-specific support offering within MyTherapy, following on from ‘MyTherapy for MS’ and ‘MyTherapy for Psoriasis’
On top of MyTherapy’s functionality, ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ provides additional content and tools specifically for asthma patients – independent of the treatment that they may be on. Read on to learn why we have decided to specifically support people living with asthma and how we are working with partners in order to ensure that each patient gets access to the education, inspiration, and tools they need.
MyTherapy for Asthma: Why?
People living with asthma have a diverse set of needs when it comes to digital support programs. Beyond reliever inhalers, some users require preventer inhalers and, in more serious cases, treatments such as oral medications or biologics that are injected. Others may want to understand triggers or learn how to live well with common comorbidities.
The ‘patient journey’, as it is often called in healthcare, is not so much a journey for those living with asthma; it is simply the reality of daily life.
The life science industry operates patient support programs to assist patients in managing their disease. Some of these provide excellent support around a specific treatment. However, they struggle to provide meaningful support for living well with the disease; the broad spectrum of different support needs sums up to a massive unmet need. In addition, many people are reluctant to rely on industry-provided offerings.
As with multiple sclerosis and psoriasis, we have thousands of asthma patients as active users of our MyTherapy platform and have communicated with people living with the condition in the development of our app. Despite the abundance of digital tools on the market, the potential for simple yet effective support offerings remains largely unmet. We believe that it is time to break down the silos of traditional patient support programs and to instead join forces for a digital patient support offering of true relevance for almost any asthma patient.
An Open Approach
‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ aims to fulfil the unmet need for support by putting the patient at the center. Users pick the tools, the education, and the inspiration that fit their individual challenges. At the same time, people can use the offering for managing comorbidities or other health-related needs – a clear departure from today's disease-centric or even product-centric support offerings.
Additionally, ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ is grounded in an open platform approach. By collaborating with partners from pharma, academia, and digital therapeutics, ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ can provide tailored support and education for specific treatments and challenges at a quality and breadth that no single offering can provide. At the same time, ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ retains all of MyTherapy’s core functionalities and keeps evolving with monthly updates.
How Partners Can Benefit from MyTherapy for Asthma?
Beyond supporting patients, ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ opens the door to a range of new partnership opportunities for both the pharmaceutical industry and for research purposes.
Pharma and Biotech
Building a patient support and education app from the ground up is costly and time-consuming, and most offerings are hardly being used. Instead, pharma partners are deploying product-specific support modules within ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’, thereby immediately benefitting from supporting adherence and persistence for their patients by means of:
- Medication reminders and progress tracking
- Educational content and helpful tips for living well with asthma
- Tracking of well-being, symptoms, and measurements
- Collaboration with caregivers and data sharing with HCPs
Our in-house team of editors are experts in medical writing and behavior change and helps partners by translating messages into patient language that clicks and sticks. ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ is for pharma companies who want to support their patients where they already are or are looking for sponsoring opportunities for (non-promotional) content available to all patients. Sounds interesting? Don't hesitate to get in touch.
Research and Digital Therapeutics
Throughout the development of MyTherapy, we have partnered with leading medical institutions such as Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München for research purposes.
Research partners can benefit from MyTherapy’s exemplary patient engagement to gain real-world insights into patients’ behavior and attitudes. MyTherapy’s userbase allows researchers to use qualitative data to analyze issues such as medication adherence, while surveys and questionnaires can reach the patient populations that matter to you.
Further, being ISO 13485 compliant, we can host medical device grade modules within ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’, e.g. digital therapeutics (DTx) of software for controlling medical device grade IoT devices.
What's next?
‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ will be available from autumn 2021. If you are interested in taking advantage of the partnering opportunities available using ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’, please get in touch. ‘MyTherapy for Asthma’ is the third disease-specific program we are releasing, following ‘MyTherapy for MS’ and ‘MyTherapy for Psoriasis’, with more in the pipeline, so don't hesitate to reach out if you want to join us in redefining patient support in a condition other than asthma, MS, or psoriasis.