The Digital Therapeutics Alliance Looks to Push the Telehealth Envelope

Digital therapeutics is "something that is new, but it's definitely something that people could hopefully get their heads around, given that it's building upon a lot of what has already been in the healthcare ecosystem," says Megan Coder, executive director of the three-year-old Digital Therapeutics Alliance. "it's a product that is using software, and that software is generating an intervention that's being delivered to a patient, and that clinical-grade intervention is making a claim to prevent, manage or treat a medical disease or disorder."

The field is vast and expanding, ranging from mHealth tools that help people living with diabetes to track and manage their care at home to wearables and virtual reality platforms that treat chronic pain. The idea behind the technology is to augment or replace the doctor's office visit and reduce the need for medication, more complex care, and perhaps even hospitalizations and surgery.