TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FeelBetter, the leader in pharmaco-clinical intelligence that optimizes value-based care, announced today a collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston on a retrospective study. The pilot will evaluate the ability of FeelBetter’s SaaS solution to predict which senior patients, with multiple chronic conditions and complex medication regimens, are at risk of deterioration and hospitalization. In addition, the pilot will assess the effectiveness of FeelBetter’s decision-support capabilities to provide actionable medication management recommendations for patients over the age of 65.
Polypharmacy, the simultaneous use of multiple medications to treat diseases and other health conditions, is common among older adults. A growing public health concern in senior patients, many of whom have multiple chronic conditions, polypharmacy paves the way for medication non-adherence, drug reactions, adverse events, and poor health outcomes, as well as increased use of healthcare services and rising costs.
“Adults who are 65 and older are likely to have multiple chronic conditions and, therefore, take more medicines than other age groups. There is an opportunity to identify which patients are at risk of adverse events related to medication regimens and to develop solutions which help clinical teams take action in advance,” said Lisa Rotenstein, MD, Medical Director of Population Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital and principal investigator of the study. “It’s important to explore how technology could be used to improve clinical outcomes.”
According to a 2019 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 83% of Americans in their 60s and 70s took at least one prescribed medication in the previous 30 days and approximately one-third used five or more prescription drugs, most commonly to manage cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. Every year, sub-optimal medication management results in 275,000 deaths and more than $528B in avoidable costs in the US alone1.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the first healthcare organization in the US to evaluate FeelBetter’s solution to help overcome such polypharmacy challenges. The study team will use FeelBetter’s technology to analyze the medication prescription and clinical data of senior patients with multiple chronic conditions who were treated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with three or more actively prescribed medications from July 2016 through December 2019. Researchers at the hospital will also evaluate how the FeelBetter solution can be used to identify patients who have the highest risk of deterioration, hospitalization and incurring financial costs from gaps in care, as well as how the technology can be leveraged to enable identification of potentially adverse medication prescriptions and combinations.
Study results will include estimates of the potential annual reduction in total medical expenditure driven by FeelBetter’s technology, particularly those associated with avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations. It is anticipated the analysis will be completed by the end of 2022 and published in 2023.
A recent retrospective pilot with 153,000 managed care patients at Leumit Health Services, one of the largest healthcare services providers in Israel, showed that usage of the FeelBetter solution can help organizations synthesize and analyze healthcare data from multiple sources to accurately report which patients are affected most from sub-optimal polypharmacy and are likely to have an avoidable hospitalization within 30-90 days. Additionally, insights from the Leumit Health Services pilot show that FeelBetter’s technology can help improve financial management of hospital systems by identifying the senior patients who are at risk prior to hospitalization.
“At FeelBetter, our goal is to enable proactive medication management and to empower providers with the knowledge that the medicines they prescribe are safe and effective,” said Dr. Adva Tzuk Onn, FeelBetter’s Chief Medical Officer, and a physician with more than 15 years of experience in geriatric and family medicine. “The study with Brigham and Women’s Hospital will enable us to further validate our solution’s ability to personalize medication regimens and improve patient journeys, while supporting efforts to transition to value-based care.”
To learn more about FeelBetter, visit www.FeelBetter.Healthcare.
About FeelBetter
FeelBetter is the leader in pharmaco-clinical intelligence that drives value-based care, providing the capabilities to optimize medication management throughout the continuum of care. Founded by an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, technologists and healthcare industry veterans, FeelBetter empowers providers with actionable insights to help ensure that the medicines they prescribe are safe and effective. The Company’s SaaS solution synthesizes and analyzes healthcare data from multiple sources to predict which patients over the age of 65 – with multiple chronic conditions and complex medication regimens – have the highest risk of deterioration, hospitalization and incurring financial costs from sub-optimal polypharmacy. Powered by AI and machine learning capabilities, FeelBetter’s technology can also be leveraged to identify the need for potential clinical interventions and personalize medication regimens.
Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, FeelBetter's investors include FirstTime Ventures, GoodCompany Ventures, Random Forest VC and Triventures.
1 Watanabe, J. H., Mclnnis, T., & Hirsch, J. D. (2018). Cost of Prescription Drug-Related Morbidity and Mortality. The Annals of pharmacotherapy, 52(9), 829-837. https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028018765159
