Healthy Living

Real-Time Multiple Sclerosis Tracking App Debuts

New approach is all about the patient

Novartis presents the study as a more patient-centric approach to clinical research, saying that “[clinical] assessments can feel unrelatable when viewed from most patients’ perspectives.” While visits to the clinic might provide specific, general clues to how MS might affect the average person, these assessments often fail to grasp the individual burden to an MS patient coping with the disease daily. For this reason, Novartis feels that they “need to get better at measuring the things that really matter to patients, like how well they can function physically and cognitively during their everyday lives, outside of the clinic.”

It took Novartis over a year to launch the MS real-time tracking app, following much planning and a long-held desire to see such a study conducted. Before release, the app was tested by advocates, neurologists, and patients with MS in order to determine the apps aesthetic appeal, utility, and ability to achieve the desired outcome.