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Pharma has never been more invested in digital health. From companion apps to remote monitoring tools, education platforms to adherence programmes, digital is now a core part of how pharma supports patients, improves outcomes, and differentiates brands. But for many organisations, that digital ambition has created an unintended side effect: complexity.

Rare disease drug launches are fundamentally different from traditional launches due to the unique challenges they present. Small, dispersed patient populations make identification and engagement difficult. Many rare diseases are underdiagnosed, leading to delays in treatment initiation. Additionally, relying solely on healthcare provider (HCP)-driven identification slows uptake and creates friction in patient access. With fewer available treatments, ensuring long-term patient adherence is critical but challenging.

Digital patient support programs (PSPs) are often overlooked in rare diseases. There’s a common perception that because patient numbers are low, digital channels may not be as effective. But is this really the case?

As 2024 comes to a close, I’m reflecting on a year where Avegen has taken great strides in delivering on our goals: to make navigating healthcare simpler, smarter, and more effective for patients and healthcare professionals alike.

Outpatient departments across the NHS are in crisis. From surging patient numbers to stretched resources, NHS teams face mounting pressure. As a result, long wait times, inefficiencies, and administrative burdens are becoming a significant barrier to quality care. At Avegen, we’ve been closely following these developments and believe now is the time for a bold conversation about how we can truly drive change.

We are excited to announce that Avegen has been awarded a place on the UK Government’s G-Cloud 14 framework. This milestone further solidifies our commitment to delivering innovative, scalable digital health solutions to our public healthcare partners, including the NHS.

We’re excited to share the results of a new patient evaluation for Klick, Avegen’s digital solution designed to support people living with HIV. The evaluation explored how patients use Klick to manage their healthcare, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

We are thrilled to announce that we’ve been selected for Cohort 8 of DigitalHealth.London's award-winning DHLAccelerator! Over the next 12 months, we look forward to collaborating with the 16 other digital health innovators and leaders to drive transformative change in outpatient management within the NHS and Social Care.

Avegen, in partnership with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trustwins Gold at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2024 for the "Most Effective Contribution To Clinical Redesign".

Recent decades have witnessed significant advances in cancer treatment, leading to higher survival rates in most types of cancer. Despite these positive trends, we are also seeing an increase in cancer incidence and a growing burden on survivors and caregivers. This burden is not just physical or financial, it has a huge impact emotionally. From the time of diagnosis, cancer patients and their caregivers have to deal with complex emotions, from processing the initial diagnosis to dealing with day to day challenges.

Oncology outpatient management is a complex and critical component of cancer care, involving a multitude of different teams and specialists from initial referral to ongoing treatment and long-term follow-up. Recent interviews with senior NHS medical oncologists from leading cancer centres such as Royal Marsden, Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer centre, Barts and Guys & St Thomas’ highlight the pressing challenges and potential solutions to enhance efficiency.

In recent years, we have seen an increase in the use of patient-facing digital health solutions, particularly for the management of long-term diseases. This process of digitalisation in healthcare delivery can be transformative, empowering patients with access to reliable information, support groups, disease tracking, reminders, clinician communication, and a range of self-management features. However, these tools remain underutilised with low adoption rates and a small user-base.

Although the outlook for HIV patients has improved dramatically over the past few decades, it is still an incurable and lifelong condition.

The landscape of digital health is rapidly evolving. The integration of symptom-tracking features in health apps is reshaping the way individuals engage with their own health. As more companies harness the power of technology, digital symptom tracking is emerging as a vital tool for enhancing adherence to health and treatment plans. This blog explores the advantages of integrating symptom tracking into digital health apps and the pivotal role it plays in promoting proactive and personalised healthcare.

As I reflect on the past year, 2023 stands out as a pivotal time in Avegen's journey. With over 1.6 million registered users on our digital health solutions, our vision to become a resilient, innovative, and brand-led digital health business revolutionising health outcomes has taken significant strides forward. Over the last year, we have stood true to our mission to combine our imagination and expertise to build things of enduring value that will make the world a healthier place. This year marked a crucial transition for us—from a startup to a thriving scale-up. We owe gratitude to everyone who contributed to Avegen's evolution. To our former Avegen colleagues, your dedication laid the foundation for our progress. To our new team members, welcome aboard this transformative expedition. And to our partners, without whom we would not be here. Looking ahead to 2024, we are excited to launch our branded digital health solution. This milestone reflects our commitment to innovation and our unwavering mission to make a positive impact on healthcare. As we wrap up this transformative year, let us celebrate the achievements, learnings, and collective efforts that have brought us to where we stand today. Here's to a promising 2024 filled with innovation, growth, and, most importantly, positive health outcomes. Dr Nayan Kalnad CEO

Widely embraced by healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies, Patient Support Programmes (PSPs) leverage data and technology to provide tailored support, such as treatment reminders, access to care coordinators, and financial assistance, which can lead to better health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. However, the efficacy of PSPs is heavily dependent on proper implementation; without effective integration into clinical practice, adequate training for healthcare professionals, and patient engagement, these programs risk being underutilised and will fail to deliver their full benefits. That’s why meticulous planning and execution of PSPs is fundamental to their success.

A Patient Support Program (PSP) can include a variety of initiatives aimed at improving patient outcomes. These programmes are structured initiatives, designed to provide comprehensive assistance and guidance to patients navigating complex healthcare journeys by fostering collaboration between drug manufacturers, healthcare providers, patients, and caregivers within the UK healthcare system. The evidence so far already demonstrates the positive impact of PSPs on patients, healthcare providers, and pharma companies with improved adherence, treatment outcomes, utilization of health services, and reduced costs.

Patient Support Programs (PSPs) serve as a transformative force within healthcare, benefiting patients, pharmaceutical brands, and the health system alike. For patients, PSPs offer comprehensive support that extends beyond medical treatment, fostering adherence to therapy, providing education, and ensuring emotional well-being, which collectively lead to improved health outcomes and quality of life.

Technological advancements have reshaped how we approach patient care in the past decade. One such innovation is Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), which leverages digital solutions to monitor and manage patient's health remotely, offering a transformative impact on healthcare delivery.

Patient support programmes or PSPs have rapidly increased in number and complexity over the last few years, reflecting the increasing importance patient experience plays. From their humble beginnings as simple drug information hotlines, PSPs have grown into comprehensive, hybrid programmes aimed at improving patient outcomes, adherence, and overall quality of life.

With the NHS waiting list crisis steadily worsening, digital health solutions can help solve the issue, but they need to be implemented nationally and fast. As the waiting list lengthens to over 8 million by the summer of 20241, combining technology and healthcare becomes increasingly crucial. In this article, let us delve into some innovative digital health strategies which could be implemented to alleviate the strain on healthcare resources and improve care for patients waiting for surgery.

Avegen is delighted to announce that KLICK, one of our digital health solutions in partnership with NHS Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust has been shortlisted for two award categories – ‘Most Effective Contribution to Integrated Health and Care’ and ‘Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign’ at the HSJ Partnership Awards recognising an outstanding dedication to improving healthcare and effective collaboration with the NHS.

Avegen's CEO, Dr. Nayan Kalnad, talks to Justin Steinman from Definitive Healthcare on their recent podcast episode of Definitively Speaking where he discusses how Digital therapeutics are the way forward, how they can support physicians in improved care delivery and how Avegen's compliant digital health products are built to support patients living with long term health conditions.

By Rajanikant Ghate

"I believe that digital health products will play a key role in meeting the 2030 SDG of ending the AIDS epidemic. Today our plethora of digital health products for PLHIV are people at risk are increasing the rates of diagnosis, streamlining access to care and increasing compliance. These help us get closer to the interim goal of having 90% of PLHIV and people at risk being linked to people centred and context specific integrated services. On World AIDS Day we are recommitting to supporting the world in ending the AIDS epidemic." Dr Nayan Kalnad, CEO and Co-Founder of Avegen

Avegen's CEO, Dr. Nayan Kalnad, talks to Justin Steinman from Definitive Healthcare on their recent podcast episode of Definitively Speaking where he discusses how Digital therapeutics are the way forward, how they can support physicians in improved care delivery and how Avegen's compliant digital health products are built to support patients living with long term health conditions.

Hear Dr. Nayan Kalnad talk to Allison K Summers, CAE, an executive coach and business leader on her Disruptive CEO Nation Podcast.

Although the state of healthcare has always been a true reflection of how advanced (or primitive) a nation’s economy is, the ongoing pandemic has put the healthcare of global economies under immense strain. With doctors and healthcare professionals still struggling to deal with surging death rates and new strains of the Coronavirus, it has been a long and unending battle for the frontline warriors.