Digital Health in the Management of Pediatric Growth Hormone Therapy – 10 Years of Developments

Abstract

Growth hormone administration is approved for use in a number of growth failure conditions in children. Optimal growth outcome requires continuous daily injections over many years, leading to problems of persistence and adherence with therapy. The easypod™ connect ecosystem enables electronic monitoring of injection and dose history, transmitted to a secure cloud database via the internet or cellular networks. Thus, healthcare providers can easily monitor adherence with therapy and be alerted to problems. The growlink™ patient app has been added to the ecosystem to provide solutions that can engage and educate patients and their families/caregivers. growlink™ also allows patients to self-report height and weight, enabling healthcare providers to track growth progression. The patient support program, TuiTek and the easypod™ Augmented Reality (AR) app are being developed within the ecosystem to support telehealth services, increase disease awareness and reduce therapy-related anxiety. easypod™ connect provides objective assessments of adherence, shown to be maintained at a high level over several years, and analyses showed that increased adherence was significantly associated with a better growth outcome. Studies have identified factors that influence persistence and adherence with GH therapy via the easypod™ connect ecosystem. These novel technologies are generating solutions that enable data-driven personalized care for children with growth disorders and optimize long-term clinical outcomes.