BMS piloting app to improve clinical trial design with patient insight
GRYT Health is a connected health start-up founded in 2016 by cancer survivors and caregivers. The company’s Stupid Cancer app connects cancer patients and caregivers across the US.
By partnering with the Rochester, NY-based startup, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) will be able to collect de-identified patient data and insights to better inform clinical trial design.
“The voice of the patient is really important to BMS as we think about our clinical programs as well as our support services,” said Kate Owen, head of global clinical operations at BMS.
“Through this pilot with GRYT and the Stupid Cancer app, we hope to gain insights from relevant patient and caregiver input on burden of disease and current therapy outside of traditional clinical and patient-reported outcomes,” Owen told us.
“This is another way for us to build upon our foundation of patient experience data to inform our trial and protocol designs,” she added.
Dave Fuehrer, CEO and co-founder of GRYT Health said the company will work with BMS to help expand existing insights around the clinical trial experience and uncover the values and needs that drive patient behavior.
“GRYT is able to generate real-time and longitudinal insights about specific sub-populations relevant to a clinical trial by inviting patients and caregivers to have a voice,” Fuehrer said.
Additionally, because of the company has established relationships with participants, it is also able to reconnect with follow-up questions and future activities, he told us.
Since launching October 2017, the Stupid Cancer app has seen a quarter of a million user interactions and more than 300,000 actively engaged patients.
Insights generated from the pilot will inform future plans, Fuehrer said, noting that it is too early at this point to comment on what that would look like.
The Stupid Cancer App is available for free download for iOS devices and will be available for Android in April 2018.
