Philips, through its investment arm, is investing in DEARhealth, a health tech spin-out from the US University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). DEARhealth provides artificial intelligence (AI)-based recommendations for chronic care care pathways.
Philips' investment is part of an investment round, in which Vesalius Biocapital III and Health Innovations also participated. The parties are jointly putting EUR 6 million into DEARhealth. The company plans to use the investment to test its technology in more hospitals, through which it aims to improve value-driven care. The company is also expanding its operations to Europe; DEARhealth is establishing its European headquarters in Amsterdam.
Quadruple Aim
DEARhealth is a UCLR spin-out set up in 2012 by Dutch Prof Daniel Hommes, an internist and gastroenterologist specialising in inflammatory bowel diseases. Working at UCLA at the time, Hommes set up DEARhealth as a research project with the aim of testing whether data-driven care planning for people with chronic diseases could ensure better health outcomes, better patient experiences and lower costs. This is the fourfold goal that healthcare has set itself internationally ('Quadruple Aim').
Hommes, now chief executive officer (CEO) of DEARhealth, says: "In the first prototypes for inflammatory bowel disease, we showed that the frequency of relapses and emergency department visits and hospital admissions were significantly reduced. This also had a huge impact on expected costs."
Pain management and chronic conditions
Meanwhile, DEARhealth's approach has also been adapted for pain treatment and chronic conditions, including liver disease, ovarian cancer, chronic kidney disease, and lower back pain. In the future, the company plans to add to this list with other treatments. For example, DEARhealth recently partnered with biopharmaceutical company UCB to improve chronic care for people with epilepsy.
DEARhealth's platform combines knowledge from both doctors, specialists and nurses with medical data and patient data. Based on this, the platform predicts the best care plan that poses the least risk to the patient. The doctor can use this prediction when drawing up the care plan, or decide to disregard the advice. The predictions help doctors adjust the care plan while treating a patient, for example if a patient is feeling less well or a result deviates from expectations. The platform thus helps identify risks at an early stage and avoid them while going through the full care plan.
Through mobile apps, patients are encouraged to actively participate in their healthcare journey. Support modules for adherence, mental support, nutritional support, wellness and education are also available.
Positive results
The platform has been tested in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, specifically Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. During these trials, the DEARhealth platform produced positive results. For instance, patient satisfaction was improved by 95%, relapse rates were reduced by 46.6%, the workload for healthcare providers was reduced by 40% and hospital admissions were reduced by 79.4%.
DEARhealth is currently focusing on validating its approach and platform with healthcare providers in both Europe and the United States (US). The platform will be deployed in seven European hospitals this year, including about four Dutch hospitals.
'Ideal match'
Rich Wilmot, head of Philips Health Technology Ventures, said, "We see DEARhealth as an ideal match within our strategy. We aim to partner with and invest in promising healthcare companies that are complementary to Philips' strategic initiatives. DEARhealth's strong potential to ensure better outcomes and better experiences for patients in chronic care is a perfect fit. We look forward to working with DEARhealth to transform healthcare delivery and help the company reach its full potential."
Hommes: "It is great to partner with Philips, Vesalius Biocapital III and Health Innovations at a time when healthcare is evolving so fast. DEARhealth works with companies like Philips to share disease-specific knowledge and expertise to provide the greatest possible value for patients and healthcare providers."
Aria Zand, Medical Doctor and Chief Product Officer at DEARhealth: "Our health tools are focused on patient value and developed by doctors with decades of experience. With these, we aim to demonstrably improve complex healthcare systems. Decades of patient record digitisation and process automation have delivered only marginal improvements in outcomes and patient experience, with costs still staggeringly high. We want to change that."
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
