Questão 19 - UFT Manhã 2022/2

Read the following text in order to answer QUESTIONS

 

    The new era in medicine

 

    While we’re trying to beat the current pandemic, we should not forget to focus on treating epidemics like diabetes, heart diseases, mental health or neurological disorders and cancer. Due to COVID-19, there’s additional dramatic pressure on healthcare systems around the world, limiting access to care even further. Doctors and care teams are overloaded, and people with health problems are staying away from general practitioners, clinics or hospitals as they’re anxious to get the virus. Yet, people also worry about delays and interruptions of their treatment or therapy. The initial resistance of the medical community for adopting new ways of care delivery and digital health solutions has turned into emphasis for change in the search for creative solutions to continue research, care and treatment. The medical community is shifting to technology to prevent, manage and treat diseases and disorders. Can this be the turning point for digital health to go mainstream?

    Digital health solutions can better deliver certain therapeutic solutions that have been around for 20+ years… A digital health solution can use biomedical feedback to show personalized and relevant content in an app. Think about the steps you take to see a doctor or therapist vs accessing an app on your phone — where is the hurdle to access the lowest?

    When prescribed a medication, up to 50% of people don’t take their prescription drug as they should. “Drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them” is a famous and rather obvious quote in the medical community. Imagine Amazon, Apple, Google, or any other tech-based company seeing half of their customers struggling to use their product as intended. Those products don’t survive, or improved versions are developed and released at a speed the pharma community can only dream.

    Now, mobile technology is famous for its ability to grab and hold people’s attention. Therefore a growing number of start ups and well-known technology companies see that as the power to help people improve their health. The tech world has given us more functionality, more quality and connectivity that is affordable. Biology and technology are coming together to change the standards of efficacy. It can support people’s health journey and gets better with every single person treated. This new era in medicine is known as digital medicine or digital therapeutics — DTx. [...]

    In the coming years, benefits from digital medicines and DTx will rise — whether it is improved health outcomes, increased patient convenience or reduced costs — yet we’ll need to do more work to move digital therapeutics into the mainstream. At least you need to be given the option to consider it, and when you conclude that DTx are not it for you, that’s ok too.

    Together with a community of curious and enthusiastic people, I aim to explore digital therapeutics and future possibilities. We don’t know the final destination yet, but it will be exciting to figure out what good looks like in this new era. [...]

Available at: https://medium.com/@jacquelinebarendregt/the-new-era-in medicine-e5a5911793fd (edited)

According to the text, treating epidemics while trying to beat the current pandemic, should be: