The Use of Oncology-Focused Digital Tools Increasing

For almost five decades, Elekta has been a leader in precision radiation medicine. Elekta recently announced today that it will further develop its focus on cancer care providers and their patients through its acquisition of Kaiku Health. The company is best known for its app that monitors patient-reported outcomes, providing intelligent symptom tracking and management for healthcare providers in routine oncology care and studies.

The Kaiku Health app screens for patients’ symptoms, notifies the care team on their development and provides value-based personalized support for patients. It is easily implemented into existing hospital information systems and can be integrated with Elekta’s MOSAIQ^® Oncology Information System (OIS).

Kaiku Health has modules for more than 25 types of cancer across different cancer care pathways. By 2019 the company had expanded across five European countries and 60 clinics. Kaiku Health agreed with Amgen in 2019 to introduce digital symptom-tracking for multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer. 

Biofourmis recently acquired Gaido Health from Takeda Pharmaceuticals to expand its presence in the oncology space. Gaido Health, a  digital therapeutics company focused on the oncology market, was part of Takeda Digital Ventures, Takeda’s corporate technology investment and incubation arm.

Biofourmis discovers, develops and delivers clinically validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, advanced tools for clinicians to deliver personalized care, technology to demonstrate the value of and complement pharmacotherapy, and cost-effective solutions for payers.

Gaido Health’s solution, which will be supported by Biofourmis’ existing Biovitals® platform, combines information on vital signs collected via remote monitoring in the home, patient surveys and analytics to detect early signs of complications in patients with cancer who have been recently discharged from the hospital. Gaido Health’s AI-based algorithms detect signs of complications to inform the clinician, enabling earlier interventions.

Takeaway: The increasing use of oncology-focused digital tools eases the interface with patients resulting in better care