Roche Partnered with PatchAi on the Digital Tool For Cancer Patients

Roche’s Italian subsidiary has partnered with digital health startup PatchAi to roll out an app. Together they aim to support people diagnosed with cancer. Both the companies are working together on the Smart Health Companion (SHC).  

In July 2020, Smart Health Companion (SHC) launched to oncology and hematology patients. They will now step up their collaboration to offer it more widely.  

SHC takes the form of a virtual assistant that engages users through conversation with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This encouraged them to improve condition management by keeping and sharing daily diaries as managing treatment adherence, according to the partners.  

Besides, their all-digital patient support program (PSP) can harvest data on the working of the therapies in real-world settings. For instance, adverse events, on symptoms, therapy adherence, and quality of life via Co-PRO, a system by Roche and PatchAi, or conversational reported outcomes.  

The company says that they can generate “insights…to improve patients’ experience with the help of clinicians’ workflows and support care delivery. SHC was the first of its kind digital health solution registered as a medical device in Italy.

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“As a stakeholder of the health system, we will make SHC available to all our public and private customers,” says Elia Ganzi, integrated customer management director at Roche Italia.  

Along with other countries, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy has seen a drastic rise in interest in the use of digital health technologies. This method has also proven to be a possible means of maintaining patient care and face-to-face consultations with limited healthcare staff.  

Recently, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) reported a 30% drop in first visits for diagnosis. Nearly, 36% decline in physical visits during the initial outbreak.

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“We will be helping medical teams in rapidly and efficiently supporting patients and translate ‘patient centricity’ into programs that demonstrate their reliability and effectiveness from a health-economic perspective,” said Alessandro Monterosso, PatchAi’s chief executive, and co-founder.