Unite Genomics, a Mark Cuban portfolio company, announced a new partnership this week that the company says can help personalize and tailor patient care insights based on their medical records and spot potential gaps in care. The company said Monday that its direct-to-consumer platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze the medical care patients may have received and alert them to missing tests or treatment options.
Already in use for ALS, certain cancers and other rare diseases, the technology – enabled by healthcare interoperability requirements on providers – presents a new trend in patient engagement: By offering patients a mechanism to share their medical records and then analyze the treatment data to inform them of potentially missing tests and treatments, Unite’s partners take an active role in care conversations.
WHY IT MATTERS
The California-based health analytics and personalized engagement platform said in a statement that its latest pharma partner will integrate the AI-enhanced clinical listening technology directly into their patient-engagement efforts.
Patients must agree to allow Unite’s platform to access and unify their medical data from multiple providers, Theo Ahadome, Unite’s chief commercial officer told Healthcare IT News on Wednesday.
He said that 90% of U.S. patients would be able to find their electronic health records accessible through the company’s platform. Unite can access patient records from over 12,000 health systems, thanks to the 21st Century Cures Act and its mandate that healthcare providers provide patients with access to their records.
The platform can import more than 1500+ EHR data elements, according to Unite’s website.
The primary use case for patients is sharing their unified medical records with a new provider, which is much faster than requesting them from multiple providers who may all be sending medical record data by fax, Ahadome explained.
However, the DTP platform also analyzes patient medical data and physician notes to provide tailored insights through generative AI that could support their treatment journeys. Ahadome said it’s being used through existing partnerships to analyze care gaps related to rare diseases, such as ALS and muscular dystrophy, and breast and lung cancers.
Unite said on its website that it leverages world-class AI systems to understand the patient’s care and make recommendations. It is trained on accepted rubrics – like medical guidelines and approved U.S. Food and Drug Administration treatment lists – to understand what “should be happening” in a patient’s care, according to Ahadome.
As a patient, “you might want to ask questions, such as, ‘Am I getting the best possible care for my condition?’ and that’s where it gets more interesting,” he said.
For example, a patient with a breast cancer diagnosis should have a biomarker genetic panel test, based on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s best practices guidelines.
“If that has not been done for some reason, we can point that out,” Ahadome said.
Of note, there is no direct buying of treatment drugs.
But by digesting EHR data and analyzing patient risk factors, and then using genAI to engage patients, Unite and its partners say they can remove friction from the treatment journey – and may improve patient outcomes.
“Of course, we’re not prescribing, we’re not providing care. But, we’re giving you information that you can then take back to your physician to have a conversation.”
The patient must speak with their healthcare provider “to get access to therapy that the healthcare provider feels is appropriate,” he said.
Unite provides patients with specific information based on its partnerships. The AI could suggest that patients with psoriasis who are on topicals or creams may need systemic treatments, and could be advised about orals or biologics that are available and FDA-approved.
“Then the patient has to take that message to their physician to have that conversation,” Ahadome said.
Clinical listening could support all chronic conditions and cancer, he noted.
“It is particularly useful in cases where a patient has multidisciplinary care teams or may receive care from many different institutions.”
While psoriasis care is the platform’s first test case outside of rare diseases and cancer, Unite plans to expand deployments for cardiovascular conditions, other cancers and more, over the next 12 months, he added.
THE LARGER TREND
“Clinical listening” through a direct relationship with patients could enhance access to treatment at pivotal moments in their care journeys.
However, while DTP technology could empower patients to advocate for the best possible treatment options, members of Congress and others are concerned about the potential conflict of interest for pharmaceutical companies offering direct sales.
In August, Pfizer pledged to lower the costs of specialty medications and simplify access to routine healthcare with partners like Instacart and Zocdoc on a user-friendly web-based platform aimed directly at consumers.
Called PfizerForAll, the DTP space allows patients to use their existing health insurance and pharmacy programs to talk to a doctor at UpScript or book an appointment on Zocdoc and get support on prior authorizations for medications.
Forbes cited the emerging trend of pharmaceutical companies selling directly to consumers as potentially circumventing doctors’ first-hand knowledge of patient medical histories and comorbidities.
Lawmakers recently asked pharmaceutical companies questions about their tapping into virtual care.
In a letter to the CEOs of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, four senators, led by U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said they were also concerned about creating the potential for inappropriate prescribing that can increase spending for federal healthcare programs, noting that the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits the willful payment of remuneration to induce patient referrals for Medicare or Medicaid-covered services or goods.
ON THE RECORD
“We created Unite to help close gaps in care and improve the healthcare system as a whole,” Taner Dagdelen, founder and CEO of Unite, said in a statement.
“We’re excited to expand its use to psoriasis, a disease with significant treatment challenges and complex patient journeys, through this partnership.”
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
Source : Healthcare IT News