By Healthesystems
The global digital therapeutics (DTx) market size was valued at $6.2 billion in 2023 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 27.2% from 2024 to 2030, according to Grand View Research. That growth is evident in the number of digital therapeutics products hitting the market. A Blue Matter Consulting whitepaper notes that in 2023, 154 prescription digital therapeutics were identified with U.S. market intentions – 15 more than the previous year’s 139.
Let’s look at the benefits of digital therapeutics and how DTx applies to injured workers and workers’ compensation medical care.
What Are Digital Therapeutics?
The Digital Therapeutics Alliance defines digital therapeutics as health software “intended to treat or alleviate a disease, disorder, condition, or injury by generating and delivering a medical intervention that has a demonstrable positive therapeutic impact on a patient’s health.”
Not to be confused with apps that track fitness, encourage medication adherence, or monitor patient activity, DTx products deliver medical interventions directly to patients. They work in a variety of ways, from using virtual reality to delivering cognitive behavioral therapy, and are typically accessed through a smartphone or tablet.
Digital therapeutics differ from general digital health products in that they are evidence-based with studies or clinical trials that demonstrate some form of clinical value for a specific medical condition. They are held to the same standards of evidence and regulatory requirements as traditional medical treatments. Unlike your typical health or wellness app, digital therapeutics can earn U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to help treat certain illnesses and injuries.
Benefits of DTx
The reported benefits of digital therapeutics can potentially apply to multiple stakeholders in the workers’ comp ecosystem, from patients to payers. The Digital Therapeutics Alliance summarizes the benefits of DTx as:
- Optimizing clinical and health economic outcomes
- Delivering high-quality therapies to underserved populations
- Easily scaling and being accessible through patient-owned devices
- Offering at-home convenience and privacy
- Transforming how patients understand, manage, and engage in their healthcare
- Extending clinicians’ ability to care for patients
- Supporting healthcare teams in settings with varying degrees of healthcare infrastructure
- Lowering overall costs of care
For injured workers, DTx products may promise better health outcomes. And while their efficacy remains debatable, clinical studies show potential.
A Risk & Insurance article cites that using Recupe™, an app tied to a wearable, injured workers regained full function and full return-to-work capability 25 days faster than injured workers not using the app during their recovery after a knee procedure.
Studies outside the injured worker population also show promise. An American Heart Association Journals study showed that digital health interventions resulted in a 45% reduction in the three-month rate of major adverse cardiovascular events and a 50% reduction in the 30-day readmission rates for patients after acute myocardial infarction. And according to the Journal of Stroke, studies have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of digital therapeutics for the rehabilitation training of neurological deficits in stroke patients.
For clinicians, digital therapeutics provide a new way to treat patients and enhance treatment plans. Not only can DTx products directly impact clinical outcomes, but they can also expand access to medical treatments, especially for underserved populations. They can even enhance patient engagement. A 2018 PwC Health Research Institute survey reported that 77% of doctors have recommended some app or digital program to patients, with 66% of doctors saying this led to an improvement in the patient’s treatment experience.
For payers, digital therapeutics can reduce overall medical costs because they often cost less than prescription medications. According to one report from MIT Technology Review, an app that helps treat insomnia costs $400 for a one-year subscription, while just six Ambien tablets cost $73.
Examples of DTx
Digital therapeutics are available or currently being developed in many therapeutic areas that are applicable to injured workers. These include but are not limited to musculoskeletal system and connective tissue disorders; mental, behavioral, and cognitive disorders; respiratory system disorders; and pain and injury management.
Here are examples of digital therapeutics that could have applications for injured workers, depending on their treatment needs:
- HelloBetter® Chronic Pain aims to reduce pain interference for individuals with chronic pain by delivering psychoeducation via text, video, and audio recordings.
- Freespira® addresses the symptoms associated with panic disorder, panic/anxiety attacks, and PTSD by teaching patients to stabilize their breathing.
- JOGO-Gx® treats migraines and chronic lower back pain by using electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback to break the pain-anxiety-muscle tension cycle.
- reSET-O® is designed to increase retention of patients with Opioid Use Disorder in outpatient treatment by providing cognitive behavioral therapy.
- RelieVRx® provides a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) experience to help injured workers learn skills to reduce and manage their chronic lower back pain.
- Wysa is an AI-based service which uses evidence-based CBT techniques, DBT, meditation, breathing, yoga, and motivational interviewing to help people who are experiencing low mood, stress or anxiety.
How Are Payers Covering DTx?
In the United States, DTx products may or may not be covered under medical or pharmacy benefits.
Public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are still working on how to provide patients with access to DTx products. In 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented a new Level II Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code for “prescription digital behavioral therapy,” which makes it easier for commercial and Medicaid plans to cover DTx.
To this same end, Congress is considering legislation called the Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill that would establish benefit categories for certain digital therapeutics so that they could be reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid, and other public payers. If passed, this bill could go a long way toward normalizing DTx products as medical treatments and making them more accessible to everyone.
The Future of DTx
By all accounts, the future of digital therapeutics looks promising – even if adoption of these technologies is slow. An ACTA Scientific Medical Sciences article notes, “Digital therapeutics have the potential to transform the management – both clinical and economic – of chronic diseases…” And the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care concludes that DTx is “expected to significantly influence healthcare delivery and its consumption across the globe.”
The content of this article is meant to be informational only. It is not an endorsement for specific products and/or manufacturers of digital therapeutics.
