CASE STUDY

PAH

HM-DHP-PAH is a complete digital care solution designed to support people living with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). It has been set-up by Avegen on HealthMachine™, our proprietary cloud-based platform, in partnership with a leading pharmaceutical company. HM-DHP-PAH app is currently launched in seven countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Lebanon), with six more scheduled to launch by early 2023.

Problem

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare, progressive, and life-threatening condition, for which there is no cure and therefore requires constant management by patients. Avegen was given the task to set-up a digital health solution that will support patient self-management and improve the patient-clinician connect. The goal of PAH management is to maintain low-risk status, improve survival and facilitate normal daily activities without limitations, thereby improving the quality of life of patients.

Market research conducted with PAH patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) showed that most PAH patients were looking for ways and means to learn more about the disease, track their symptoms and health progress, understand the impact of their symptoms, and remember the right information to share with their HCPs during clinical appointments. HCPs also believed that frequent tracking and education on PAH would empower patients to actively manage their disease and be part of the decision-making.

However, no such digital solution existed to address these needs, so a holistic approach was taken to design a digital solution that delivered patient care and self-management, whilst also providing value to care-givers and clinicians.

Approach

At Avegen, our product deployment teams are multi-disciplinary and consist of researchers, designers, engineers, data analysts and more. Our teams also come from a variety of different backgrounds and bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise that helps us understand each client’s requirements and design solutions that bring value to patients.

Our multi-disciplinary team collaborated with our client and aligned different stakeholders, ranging from research to patient access; brand to medical affairs and commercial to digital innovation to create a transformative digital health solution which could be easily scaled and localise to new countries

HM-DHP-PAH digital solution is set-up on HealthMachine™, our proprietary product development platform and it continues to be improved, based on input and insights from patients, patient advocacy representatives and HCPs.

Set-up an internal Kick-off
  • Signed SOW & PO
  • Project plan
  • Client approved Functional Specifications Document (FSD) v1.0
  • Regulatory need assessment
Build and test
  • Final FSD v2.0
  • Agile development
  • Periodic calls with clients to track progress
UAT and release
  • Share UAT builds for feedback as per Project plan
  • Incorporate UAT feedback
  • Set-up KPI dashboard
  • Final release
Maintenance and improvement
  • Maintenance of the product
  • Regular updates as mandated by Apple/Google Play stores
  • Service desk handling of requests

Solution

The HM-DHP-PAH digital solution consists of two parts:

First, there is the patient-facing mobile app designed for patients who have been diagnosed with PAH. The app has the potential to positively impact the quality of life of patients living with PAH and their carers by facilitating two key outcomes:
– improved patient self-management and understanding of their disease
– improved patient-HCP dialogue and shared decision making.

The HM-DHP-PAH app enables patients to:
– track their symptoms, vitals, and PAH-specific clinical parameters and set personalised goals, to have a better understanding of their health and disease progression over time.
– gain a better understanding of their disease, through a wealth of clinically verified educational content related to PAH.
– access tips and advice on living well with PAH, including evidence-based advice on topics such as lifestyle and exercise, and a range of patient stories/ testimonials to learn from others’ experiences and provide emotional support.
– engage in a personalised care programme.
– connect and strengthen communication with HCPs to support clinical assessments and discussions regarding disease management at follow-up appointments.

In collaboration with our client, we also developed a HM-DHP-PAH HCP Companion – a clinician web portal that can be used by HCPs to access data shared by patients via the patient app.

The HCP Companion enables HCPs to:
Access reports shared by patients to provide an overview of their health on a more granular scale, supporting early identification of changes in a patient’s disease status and their response to current treatment and interventions
Enables HCPs and patients to view and discuss simple, easily formatted reports from the web portal during consultations, to support patient-HCP discussions and management decisions based on patient preferences and priorities.

Impact

The HM-DHP-PAH app has the potential to support improved patient wellbeing and outcomes by:
Helping patients to improve their disease understanding, self-management outside of the clinic, and engagement in care and decision-making.
Supports HCPs and patients with assessing disease progressing and informing management decisions.

  • 7 live countries
  • 4.5% of total PAH population in the live countries
  • 28 Clinics on board
  • 7500+ Patient-reported symptoms & vitals
  • 2300+ Reports generated, viewed & shared
  • 800+ Articles read

Key takeaway

HM-DHP-PAH solution is a testament to our experience and ability to understand client requirements and delve deep into patient and clinician insights to create a digital health product that is fast to deploy, impactful and flexible to be continuously iterated based on evidence. With respect to technology, HealthMachine™, our disease agnostic platform supports the development of compliant, scalable and evidence-backed digital health products which make a real impact on patient outcomes.

Explore more case studies

Trusted & key partner for our organization

Regional Digital Stakeholder, Engagement Lead @major pharmaceutical company

“Avegen does discovery, design and implementation very “We have been closely working with Avegen as a partner for digital health opportunities for more than five years. Their deep understanding of patients and doctor needs, flexibility to accommodate our requirements in a consistent manner supporting our business strategies and how to manage country implementation effectively make them a trusted and key partner for our organization.”. But what sets them apart is the therapy area expertise and implementation experience they bring from a range of live healthcare applications.”

Digital lead

Local operating company @ major pharmaceutical company

“Avegen is a great partner both at a strategic and operational level. They understand the need for evidence-based decisions and truly care about impacting patients’ lives. The app is widely considered a valuable patient solution largely due to our partnership with Avegen and their work behind it.”

Get in touch to see how you can use HealthMachine™ to deliver a transformative digital health product to your patients in under 3 months.

Book a Demo