Abstract
Mobile medical applications (mHealth), music, and video games are being developed and tested for their ability to improve pharmacotherapy outcomes and medication adherence. Pleiotropic mechanism of music and gamification engages an intrinsic motivation and the brain reward system, supporting therapies in patients with neurological disorders, including neuropathic pain, depression, anxiety, or neurodegenerative disorders. Based on accumulating results from clinical trials, an innovative combination treatment of epilepsy seizures, comorbidities, and the medication non-adherence can be designed, consisting of antiepileptic drugs and disease self-management software delivering clinically beneficial music. Since creative elements and art expressed in games, music, and software are copyrighted, therefore clinical and regulatory challenges in developing copyrighted, drug–device therapies may be offset by a value proposition of the exclusivity due to the patent–independent protection, which can last for over 70 years. Taken together, development of copyrighted non-pharmacological treatments (e-therapies), and their combinations with pharmacotherapies, offer incentives to chronically ill patients and outcome-driven health care industries.
Highlights
Mobile medical applications emerge as daily companions to help patients, clinicians, and pharmacists [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Mobile medical applications cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) range from diagnostic and monitoring platforms to a sound therapy or interactive medication reminders [19]
The exponential growth of mobile medical applications has resulted in a lag of reports from larger scale, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to support their clinical utilities [3, 20]
Summary
Mobile medical applications (mHealth apps) emerge as daily companions to help patients, clinicians, and pharmacists [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Clinical studies of mobile medical applications, serious video games, or music show their promise as tools to improve therapy outcomes, disease self-management, or medication adherence for chronically ill patients (Figure 1A). This article discusses opportunities for creating and clinical development of non-pharmacological treatments, which can be integrated into specific combination therapies for chronic diseases.
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