Innovate Rheumatology
Smart, Digitalized, Personalized and Precise
Rheumatology is at the edge of transformation. How can the entire therapy journey from prevention via identification and diagnosis to treatment be individualized and optimized with the help of modern technologies? Unleash your creativity, use your imagination to tackle this plethora of challenging issues and make an impact on one of the most prevalent diseases in society.
Optional: In our free and optional Design Thinking Workshop we will help you to innovate your idea and will connect you with other participants - Register here.
✅ Completed 🏁 Winner Congratulations to Vila Health, ScientaLab and Midaia for winning the Challenge. Special rewards for their innovative ideas were also given to "Cynteract" and "Joint-on-Chip"
🏆 Prize 8.000€ prize pool + working together with experts from rheumatology + possibility of further cooperation with medac
Background information
A variety of exciting useful sources and background information on the topic of rheumatology and technological developments can be found in the attached reader.
Existing patients´ burdens
Below you will find various hurdles that physicians and patients face during the patients‘ therapeutic journey in the field of rheumatology. These can serve as good starting points for your thoughts. Please note that they are only meant to guide you and are not meant to exclude any concept that might fit the challenge:
Identification and diagnosis
- No clear cause identification | Gaps in the medical history taking | Early identification and diagnosis are often impossible although early start of treatment is crucial
Treatment
- A lot of trial and error | Guidelines are too standardised, no individual treatment | Too little knowledge about "targets" in treatment | Lack of early therapeutic monitoring to adapt and individualize treatment
Structural
- First contact with primary care physician with lack of expertise and thus lengthy process until rheumatologist comes into play - Lack of interface between primary care physician and rheumatologist
- Data are often available but cannot be used
- Insufficient information and support for patients so that they do not take their medication regularly, for example
Desired innovations and tracks
The Challenge, and thus the areas and desired innovations, were derived from the existing burdens and are presented in more detail below.
Early detection and prevention
How can the early and specific identification of at-risk individuals who are still healthy be improved? What innovative prevention concepts can they be provided with?
Innovations related to:
- the collection and utilization of relevant medical data for risk assessments
- a more efficient path from the general practitioner to the rheumatologist to facilitate early identification and treatment
- prevention concepts and tools for identified high-risk patients (lifestyle, diet, etc.)
Innovative diagnostic methods and biomarkers
How can the early and specific diagnosis of individuals that might carry the disease be improved? How can an improved diagnosis be used to make valid predictions resulting in an individualized treatment?
Innovative diagnostic methods and biomarkers supporting the identification, collection and utilization of relevant data for diagnosing rheumatic diseases that:
- support stratification of patients into different subgroups
- predict whether a healthy person may develop a certain rheumatic disease
- predict the disease outcome: mild, moderate or severe
- predict response to different therapeutic options
- predict early flares
- help to assess patients’ mental health as a potential indicator for worsening of the disease.
Individualization and monitoring of treatment
How can your novel prediction models be designed to tailor therapy and medication to individual patient conditions? What innovative medication and therapy concepts, for instance based on optimized monitoring of the disease, can be derived?
Innovations related to:
- Prediction models and, based on them, the design of therapy and medication on the basis of individual patient conditions. Stratifying patients into subgroups to provide the optimal treatment for patients, which allows the primary care physician to provide the right patient with the right medicine.
- Innovative and individualized medication or therapy concepts. Monitoring the patient’s disease activity objectively provides the primary care physician with the opportunity to provide the right medication at the right time.
- Approaches and tools to track therapy success and to further individualize and optimize therapy. Objective monitoring provides the opportunity to switch medication in case of no response to the current treatment approach.
- Facilitate co-operation and exchange with related experts in case of co-morbidities or side effects (cardiologist, hepatologist, etc.)
Optimization of the treatment journey
How can the entire treatment journey be optimized specifically in the field of rheumatism? Think about areas such as psychological support or the collaboration of affected stakeholders (physicians, caregivers, relatives, pharmacists, etc.).
Innovations related to:
- Approaches for psychological and informational support and guidance of patients and relatives during the disease. Considering the impact of the patient´s mental health on therapeutic outcome.
- Creating streamlined process and information symmetry between all relevant stakeholders (physicians, caregivers, relatives, pharmacists, etc.), e. g. regarding access to appointments for doctor’s visits or lab tests, drug prescription and drug delivery
- Preventing comorbidities and further disease progression or flares that negatively impact the patient’s condition
- Easy tools to track change of symptoms and/or appearance of side effects for the next doctor’s appointment