Health Catalyst, Inc. and MedRhythms, Inc. are teaming up to help the millions of Americans who are survivors of stroke to access a promising new digital therapeutic that uses sensors, music and artificial intelligence to measure and improve walking. The agreement is the first for Health Catalyst’s new life sciences business, which aims to align providers, patients, and life science companies through its physician ecosystem and evidence derived from its partnership with many of the nation’s largest health systems encompassing more than 100 million patient records.

Each year, more than 795,000 Americans suffer a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many are left unable to walk or talk normally and require extensive care and rehabilitation, with total costs estimated at $34 billion a year. While existing therapies for these patients rely mainly on one-on-one physical therapy, MedRhythms has developed a neuroscience-based approach to treatment, employing the principles of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS). RAS has been shown in over 50 clinical research studies to improve walking for patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s Disease.

The partnership between Health Catalyst and MedRhythms represents a new dynamic for improving outcomes for patients with neurologic injury or disease. The companies will deploy new methods for pinpointing patients who could benefit from MedRhythms’ digitally-forward therapeutics, accurately measuring their clinical outcomes and enabling MedRhythm’s integration within the provider clinical workflow.

“One of the biggest challenges facing life science companies is how to integrate their products within the clinical workflow so they are able to improve patient outcomes,” said Elia Stupka, PhD, general manager of Health Catalyst’s life science business. “Health Catalyst will leverage our services and relationships with some of the nation’s largest provider organizations to develop a convenient means of providing MedRhythms’ products and those of life science companies in general within the clinical workflow, in a manner that’s respectful of clinicians’ existing care processes.”

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Under the agreement, Health Catalyst will use real-world data and analytic applications to identify unmet medical needs within the care of neurologic injury and disease. The methodology leverages Health Catalyst’s analytics to uncover variation in outcome metrics and care within healthcare organizations. As best practices for patient care are identified through this process and put into practice by provider organizations, patients are identified as potential beneficiaries of a new medication or digital therapy such as MedRhythms product. By standardizing the way in which both clinical outcomes and cost reductions are measured, a reliable framework can be developed to measure effectiveness and structure outcome-based pricing that can be applied to the digital therapy.

“This partnership with Health Catalyst is a true milestone in our effort to develop digital therapeutics based on the neuroscience of music,” said Owen McCarthy, President and co-founder of MedRhythms. “We’re confident that the combination of Health Catalyst’s data and analytics expertise, and its nationwide customer base of provider organizations, offer an unprecedented opportunity to achieve MedRhythms’ mission and vision of making a high-quality clinical impact in the lives of millions of people.”

“This partnership comes at a crucial time in the digital therapeutics industry,” said Carlos Rodarte, senior vice president of strategy and business development for the life sciences at Health Catalyst, and renowned thought leader in digital health. “Several companies in this field have completed or are completing important trials demonstrating the significant clinical impact of true, validated and regulated digital therapeutics, paving the way for an entire new industry in digital health which has disruptive potential globally to deliver rapid, efficient therapies for patients with unmet needs. We are excited to leverage our technological platform, outcome expertise and trusted network of providers to support digital therapeutics companies like MedRhythms.”

“We believe it’s time for a trusted company with proven expertise to take a different run at building partnerships between providers and life science companies, as a neutral party focused on improved health and wellness for patients,” said Dr. Stupka. “This agreement with MedRhythms aligns perfectly with our mission of serving as a catalyst for massive, sustained improvements in healthcare outcomes.”

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SOURCE MedRhythms, Inc.