Page 12 - Christiana Care Health System Focus September 2018

The Value Institute |
Frontiersofmedicine C O N T I N U E D
The company was interested in the work that the Gene Editing Institute has been doing with CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that can edit a specific set of genes among the tens of thousands contained in an organism's DNA.
The Gene Editing Institute has been using CRISPR to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for lung cancer. NovellusDx was interested in how CRISPR can help with diagnostics.
“There’s the belief that CRISPR will slowly replace some diagnostics because it has this incredible ability to manipulate DNA,” said Gene Editing Institute Director Eric Kmiec, Ph.D.
NovellusDx’s diagnostic tool had a lag time of up to 14 days.
“With cancer patients, two weeks is a long time to get an accurate therapy going,” Kmiec said. Using CRISPR-Cas12a, the institute developed a process that reduced the time to 36 hours. “CRISPR is lightning fast,” he said. Now NovellusDx has a 10-year
Dlicense to use the institute’s technology.
elivering useful data that can improve patient behavior is behind the development of digital pills, the topic of a
presentation given by Dominique Medaglio, Pharm.D., a senior clinical researcher with the Value Institute. Medaglio recapped the results of a Christiana Care pilot program using Proteus Digital Health’s Proteus Discover, which was designed to help patients remember to take medication.
The Proteus Discover platform includes a medication with a tiny microchip. As it’s being digested, the technology sends a signal to a small sensor in a patch worn on the stomach.
The patch detects the pill's unique identification and sends a notification
via Bluetooth to a patient iPad, where an application records the medication name and strength, as well as the date and time it was ingested. Along with the patient, health care providers can access the information. If the patient misses a dose, the application sends a notification.
Christiana Care’s pilot program involved patients with heart failure who were comfortable using technology. The patients who completed the program for more than two weeks had an average 80-percent adherence rate, Medaglio said.
“I see this as a clear example of what happens when the technology is ahead of policy. Not every hot technology out there
is ready to hit the ground running. There are still some significant barriers.”
Dominique Medaglio, Pharm.D.
“There’s the belief
that CRISPR will slowly replace some diagnostics because it has this incredible ability to manipulate DNA.”
Eric Kmiec, Ph.D.
10 CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM