Wearable technology is being increasingly used outside of the limited hospital environment.
Patients with depression can have a wide variety of symptoms, and cognitive issues are common. As a result a large proportion are resistant to treatment, and diagnosis and monitoring is difficult.
Companies that begin using wearable tech sooner rather than later will have competitive edge.
The Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda and Cognition Kit are using an app to assess the cognitive functioning of patients with major depressive disorder.
The app developed by Cognition Kit is designed to measure the cognition of subjects outside of a hospital using the Apple Watch.
It will provide an understanding of how well mood and cognition of patients with depression can be measured using wearable technologies in comparison with the currently used neuropsychological assessments; an essential part of validating the use of wearable technology for clinical studies in the future.
The announced clinical study will involve 30 participants ages 18 to 65 with mild or moderate depression.
Use of wearables will lead to a better overall understanding of patient needs and aid in the close monitoring of patient responses during clinical trials with novel therapies.
