As digital therapeutics become increasingly popular, pharmacists will play an important role in helping patients navigate their options, according to a commentary published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.
Prescription digital therapeutics are software that deliver clinical interventions which have been approved by the FDA. These therapies, which come in the form of smartphone or web-based apps, can be used with medications or as stand-alone treatments. They can treat, monitor or diagnose many different conditions, including diabetes, asthma, and psychiatric illness.
Companies such as NightWare and Akili already have approved apps on mobile devices to treat substance use disorder, PTSD and ADHD. Typically, a clinician will prescribe one of the digital therapeutics, which a patient then downloads. They can be helped with any of the steps via a voice call or online chat function.
Once downloaded, the app may have a dashboard where clinicians can monitor the patients progress throughout the length of the prescription. The content of the apps is usually delivered through programs like self-guided interactive lessons, animations, illustrations, quizzes to test and enhance user knowledge, or video-based expert explanations.
There are several ways in which pharmacists may interact with patients using prescription digital therapeutics. The first and most obvious is that many patients using these programs will also be taking prescription medications. Pharmacists will likely receive information about a medication change from a clinician monitoring a patients progress on a program.
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