Supporting Early and Sustained Remission of Rheumatic Diseases

Earlier diagnosis and treat-to-target with patient reported data

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Digital Tools Tailored for Rheumatic Care

Putting the patient in the front seat

Elsa Science strongly believes that the management of chronic care can be improved by true, structured involvement of the patient. Patients’ everyday knowledge and insights about their symptoms can help inform the healthcare system and enable earlier diagnoses as well as more timely and personalised treatment decisions. Through our Rheumatic Care solution, we capture this data, making it accessible to the right part of the healthcare system at the right time.

We are committed to developing new kinds of collaboration tools and services for patients, healthcare providers and payers. By tailoring them to rheumatic diseases, we ensure relevance for all users and stakeholders, as such complementing current care practices and improving future care.

Elsa Science is a catalyst for value-based rheumatic care by empowering patients to adopt better health behaviors, helping providers improve treat-to-target and supporting the healthcare system to enhance care quality while reducing costs. Here’s how:

Elsa Science “Rheumatic?”

For timely referrals, improved triage in specialist care and quicker diagnosis

Diagnostic delay [3] is one of the current challenges in rheumatology. Rheumatic symptoms such as joint pain are hard to evaluate for patients and health-care providers [4-6]. Patients often wait too long before seeking treatment as they believe that the symptoms will resolve themselves [7] or be relieved through their own self-care [8].

Elsa Rheumatic? is a symptom checker tool, developed together with patients, health-care professionals and designers, to better support individuals to seek treatment at an early stage of disease onset. By capturing patients’ symptoms, Elsa Rheumatic can:

Support primary care in assessing people with rheumatic symptoms
Enable more informed referrals to specialist care
Help with triage of new patients in specialist care
Facilitate a more informed intake and assessment of a new patient visit, and quicker diagnosis

Elsa Science Self Care App

For improved self management and self-efficacy

Chronic disease control and outcomes are strongly linked to the efficacy of patients’ self-management. Using the Self Care app, patients can track and monitor symptoms, habits and medications, as well as access educational support and health programs. Engaging patients via the self-care app will:

Enable a timely view of symptom development and insights into the impact of medications and lifestyle factors on the same.
Support patients with self-management techniques to better cope with their illness, and map the progression of the patients’ self-efficacy and quality of life.
Supplement provider education by offering a platform for scientific yet user-friendly information around key areas such as diet, pain management, exercise etc.

Elsa Science Clinical Dashboard

Treat-to-Target with Tight Control Using Patient Reported Outcomes

A treat-to-target strategy, including a specific remission-based goal, is thought to be effective because it encourages healthcare practitioners to apply tight control and be flexible in modifying the treatment plan.

Tight control is achieved through frequent assessment of patients’ status against measurable benchmarks of disease activity level to monitor the efficacy and safety of a new treatment.

The Clinical Dashboard gives providers access to real-time patient reported outcomes, as such enhancing the level of monitoring and assessment required to achieve tight control and thus strengthening the treat-to-target strategy. Facilitating the collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients can:

Empower patients to better describe and visualize their everyday life
Allow healthcare professionals to monitor treatment progression in real time
Enable early decisions to change treatment
Support shared decision making around treatment and visit frequency
Increase the understanding of patients’ self-efficacy and quality of life

Contact Us

If you want to get in touch with us and discuss how to better support people living with a chronic disease, please send us an email at hello@elsa.science

References

MeSH: Self-management (2018). Https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/?term=self-management Accessed 20
http://www.riggare.se/2012/10/20/healthcare-vs-selfcare/
Raza K, Stack R, Kumar K, Filer A, Detert J, Bastian H, et al. Delays in assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: variations across Europe. Ann Rheum Dis 2011 Aug 07;70(10):1822-1825
Simons G, Belcher J, Morton C, Kumar K, Falahee M, Mallen CD, et al. Symptom Recognition and Perceived Urgency of Help-Seeking for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Other Diseases in the General Public: A Mixed Method Approach. Arthritis Care & Research 2017 Apr 10;69(5):633-641.
Simons G, Lumley S, Falahee M, Kumar K, Mallen CD, Stack RJ, et al. The pathway to consultation for rheumatoid arthritis: exploring anticipated actions between the onset of symptoms and face-to-face encounter with a healthcare professional. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2017 Jun 14;18(1).
Kumar K, Daley E, Carruthers DM, Situnayake D, Gordon C, Grindulis K, et al. Delay in presentation to primary care physicians is the main reason why patients with rheumatoid arthritis are seen late by rheumatologists. Rheumatology 2007 Jun 27;46(9):1438-1440.
Raciborski F, Kłak A, Kwiatkowska B, Batko B, Sochocka-Bykowska M, Zoń-Giebel A, working team. Diagnostic delays in rheumatic diseases with associated arthritis. Reumatologia 2017;55(4):169-176
Stack RJ, Nightingale P, Jinks C, Shaw K, Herron-Marx S, Horne R, et al. Delays between the onset of symptoms and first rheumatology consultation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK: an observational study. BMJ Open 2019 Mar 04;9(3):e024361.