One of the fastest-growing frontiers of healthcare is Digital Therapeutics (DTx), which utilizes clinically tested software to prevent, treat, and manage a growing range of medical conditions. During Covid-19, governing agencies loosened regulatory requirements and increased incentives for DTx. Fortunately, this propelled innovation, and transitioned DTx from up-and-coming to a high-demand field. The goal was simple: provide access and focused support to patients remotely while simultaneously relieving overtaxed healthcare facilities. An added benefit was the application of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) to DTx. Combined, DTx and DCTs improve patient recruitment, retention, and access, allowing researchers to pull from underserved communities, including rural populations. The result was more diverse and inclusive data. However, as pandemic-based restrictions end, lawmakers are scrambling to not only appropriately regulate but also categorize and medically code this burgeoning fi
he FDA has made a purposeful choice to write in broad strokes, stopping short of detailing ways to execute DCTs. Even so, the Agency is starting to acknowledge – and thereby support – the global shift towards expanded trial models. Essentially, the FDA is implicitly broadening the definition of clinical trials.
Penn Medicine recently published a study on the economics of providing telemedicine it showed that when the health system began offering virtual urgent care services to its employees, the visits ended up being 23% less expensive to conduct than in-person appointments.
Medical schools and residency training programs push trainees away from primary care and make primary care seem less prestigious. Medicare is the largest payer of graduate medical education, so Medicare could require additional outpatient primary care training in residency to encourage Family and Internal Medicine trainees to enter outpatient primary care, where the need is critical.
Pamela Tenaerts, Author at MedCity News medcitynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medcitynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.