HEALTH TECH
SHIV GAGLANI
Line Health Aims to Tackle Issue
of Medication Adherence
O
ne of the most recalcitrant issues surrounding patient engagement is adherence to medication, particularly when it
comes to chronic conditions as well as some postacute conditions such as infections that require
antibiotic treatment. Combined with principles of
behavior change, digital health interventions have
shown promise to increase adherence to medication regimens. This is clearly something that both
clinicians and pharmaceutical companies want to
happen. We recently spoke with Diogo Ortega, the
CEO of an innovative new digital health company
called Line Health that is developing a connected
pill dispenser to improve medication adherence.
What is Line Health?
Line Health (linehealth.com) has developed a
“connected pill dispenser” to increase and track
medication adherence—a problem that costs the
U.S. health care system around $290 billion each
year. It helps chronic patients to comply with
their medication regimen, and also gives real-time
insights to payers, providers, and family members.
“Our product will
be in the hands of
patients who need
it, and it will help
them to be more
adherent, healthy,
and in control of
their disease.”
– Diogo Ortega
38 CardioSource WorldNews
How did you
come up with
the idea for
Line Health?
The idea was
born when my
grandmother—
who is almost
80 and completely
independent—took one
pill intended to be taken by
my grandfather by accident.
She ended up fine, but I realized
that medication routines are increasingly complex, and that could be a threat
for the independence of chronic patients. I got
the chance to develop this idea during a 24-hour
hackathon in Lisbon (“Appy Day BPI”), where I
won not only the first prize, but also the audience
prize. From there, I decided to invest in the idea
and build a company.
What are the outcome measurements you are
most interested in?
We want to empower all stakeholders with data
they don’t have yet. For payers and providers,
the adherence to medication is very important
because it’s directly linked with outcomes, hospital
readmissions, and health care costs. For pharmaceutical companies, there are clear advantages to
not only having access to anonymized data about
their patients’ adherence to treatments, but also
to what co-morbidities they have as well as what
kind of pills they take concomitantly.
Can you discuss what offerings you have
for cardiologists or other clinicians/trainees
involved in cardiovascular medicine?
Cardiovascular medicine is a top priority for us,
because adherence to cheap (mostly generic) drugs
can provide huge cost savings to the system, and
contribute to better patient health. Our “connected
pill dispenser” is suitable for patients who take
multiple drugs, which is frequently the case for
cardiovascular disease, and our app can also track
other metrics, like blood pressure, using other
types of medical devices. All of this makes it a lot
Connected pull dispense increases and
tracks medication adherence.
easier to control the disease and to closely monitor
each patient. Our first clinical pilot will be focused
on stroke patients, and the main goal of the study
is to reduce hospital readmission rates.
Where do you see Line Health in 1 year?
5 years?
Our major goal is to create a product that has value
not only for patients, but also for family members,
health professionals, and all the stakeholders in
the health space. I believe that in 1 year we’ll have
compelling, clinically validated data, and in 5 years
our product will be in the hands of patients who
need it, and it will help them to be more adherent,
healthy, and in control of their disease.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We recently secured an investment from Bolt, as
well as some important pilots and partnerships
with companies like Bayer, St Davids Healthcare,
and Dell. We’re actively looking for investors that
share our vision as well as locations and partners
to pilot our technology. If you are interested please
contact me at [email protected]. ■
Shiv Gaglani is an MD/MBA candidate at the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard Business School.
He writes about trends in medicine and technology and
has had his work published in Medgadget, The Atlantic,
and Emergency Physicians Monthly.
February 2016