This has proved to be a great week for digital health credibility.
Firstly Sleepio picked up two honours – one was scoring the highest mark on the first Ranked Health output. The second was getting the American College of Physicians to come out and say that CBT-I should be the treatment of choice for insomnia (above hypnotics).
Meanwhile a study has shown that “A Smart Phone-based ECG Recorder Is Non-inferior to an Ambulatory Event Monitor for Diagnosis of Palpitations”. In layman’s language, the Alivecor/Kardia smartphone peripheral and app are as good as the awkward to wear & cumbersome Holter monitor.
Well done both!
Those who have heard Dr Sophie Bostok, the indefatigable Sleepio Sleep Evangelist, explain how, irrespective of how many RCTs that they have done to prove the efficacy of Sleepio, the NHS still want more evidence before they will buy, will be wondering if this finally will be enough to persuade the NHS. Likewise those who have heard the NHS Innovation fellow and almost-as-indefatigable Francis White who heads up Alivecor in the UK, and who may have seen NICE’s Medtech Innovation Briefing (MIB) for AliveCor’s AF detecting technology (now rebranded as Kardia) whose 32 pages of overwhelmingly positive evidence on Kardia’s ability to detect AF are then followed by a disclaimer on its efficacy, may equally be wondering if this is the turning point for that product.
Sadly the Accelerated Access Review (AAR, for which this editor represented the digital health community as Managing Director of DHACA) heard that on average it takes 17 years for the NHS to adopt new innovations, so we may need Francis and Sophie to continue exuding their amazing passion for a little while yet. Perhaps the AAR when it is finally published after the delay caused by the Referendum will offer some hope!
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