Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023
Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023

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2022 was a landmark year for Huma. Our consistent focus throughout 2022 and into 2023 continues to be on building quality partnerships that allow us to collaborate and deliver on our mission, enabling people to live longer, fuller lives.

In March, we announced our pioneering partnership with the world-leading pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca (AZ) to scale innovation in digital health. Our history of close cooperation and a shared ambition to improve clinical outcomes makes for the perfect partnership. Together, we’ll be united by a shared mission and drive to deploy digital health solutions that bridge the gap between patients and clinicians and advance diversity through hybrid and decentralized clinical trials.

We spoke to Abby Staible, AZ’s Director of Commercial Digital Health, to explore her thoughts on how our pioneering partnership will accelerate the impact of digital health technology.

Q: In March we announced our digital partnership. How has this pioneering venture evolved since then?

A: It has been an absolute whirlwind. When we started, we didn't know each other at all. It was a massive ambition. AstraZeneca is a large pharmaceutical company, with 80,000 employees and we were partnering with a growth-stage digital health technology company with roughly 300 employees. We had to learn to speak the same language, understand each other's processes and through it all build trust. We had to really build from the ground up, working with our healthcare partners in the ecosystem to establish a go-to-market and deployment strategy, plan the technology build and patient journey mapping and think about everything else that goes into building healthcare technology.

We’ll soon be live in the US with our asthma platform with a pipeline of other healthcare partners for 2023, which is extremely exciting. We've completed a virtual ward solution in partnership with some of the clinical teams in the NHS that will align with the NHS as virtual ward efforts across multiple disease states. We focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to start and we're looking at expanding across multiple geographies.

I can honestly say it's people that made that dream a reality and I couldn't be more proud of the organizations and sitting here seeing what we've accomplished. From the very beginning, we aligned on what we wanted to do, which was to improve the care of the patients we serve. These digital platforms were a way to enhance the medical relationship between patient and provider. It wasn't a replacement. It was an enhancement. All with the shared end goal of driving better outcomes for patients.

Q: Why did AstraZeneca choose to partner with Huma?

A: The pharmaceutical industry, as one of the major players in the healthcare ecosystem, has had to shift its approach to engaging with patients and providers. Over the last few years, primarily because of the COVID pandemic, patients weren't going in to see their providers. Our teams weren't able to connect with providers because we weren't able to go in to those settings. We saw a massive rise in telemedicine then, but now we're also seeing a drop in telemedicine because that's only one point solution.

“We’ve been talking about a digital revolution in health care for years now, but we just haven't really seen the kind of match that triggered the explosion of innovation.” Abby Staible, AstraZeneca, Director of Commercial Digital Health.

As a pharmaceutical company, we’re looking to translate the phenomenal clinical research we do to build guideline-based therapies and clinical pathways, into clinical practice. And digital is the path to do that. But we have to consider the resource required to build and manufacture digital therapeutics. Of course, companion apps, AI and machine learning to identify populations at risk all come with regulation requirements, because you're dealing with clinical settings and patients' well-being. It requires a level of expertise from technology, clinical insight and change management, that doesn't typically sit inside a pharma company.

This partnership with Huma has been an amazing learning experience of how a large pharmaceutical company can continue to lead in this space by delivering digital tools at the point of care to patients and providers, but not distracting us from our core business: Building the best-in-class, clinical evidence to support the molecules that we're bringing to market and improving the pathway of bringing those molecules to the bedside, at the point of care.

Q: Is the movement towards digital healthcare slowing down?

A: Healthcare technology had seen a massive rise in external investments in the marketplace over the last couple of years, and then 2022 hit. We've seen a significant drop in that external investment. So there's a lot of fear and questions as to the viability of all of this noise that has existed within healthcare technology. But, I think this presents a phenomenal opportunity, as we look to 2023 and beyond.

For example, we know that patients with chronic conditions, like heart failure, don’t just have heart failure. They're comorbid. They have heart failure plus diabetes, and they're on their way to progressing to renal disease. So the multiple point of care solutions don’t work anymore, it needs to be a platform approach. And this has become the buzzword. We've heard it at all the healthcare technology conferences this year, and it will continue to be the buzzword, because not only have we created noise for patients, we've created so much noise for our healthcare providers. They work in the electronic health record, they do not work in 20 different dashboards that require multiple web logins, because their patients also are comorbid. These point-of-care solutions have their own dashboards that don't integrate into their workflow.

So with Huma, we wanted to build one experience, for both patient and provider, in a modular fashion. We needed to ensure we were going through only a short development cycle if we needed to customise the platform for a specific clinical pathway. And that we could integrate devices across numerous use cases. And of course, ensure all that data would flow to the provider at the point of care, not requiring 20 extra clicks. And Huma really accelerated that vision, because Huma built that exact platform.

“When it comes to innovation, it’s the companies and tools that are going to stand out. It’s the ones that have ongoing use, are truly patient and clinician centred in their design and functionality, and have scientific evidence that back that it does actually drive improved clinical outcomes and reduce cost, and at the end of the day, delight the users.” Abby Staible, AstraZeneca, Director of Commercial Digital Health.

Q: What's coming up for digital health in 2023 and beyond?

A: Generations are changing. We’re seeing a more technology-savvy, consumer-centric, experience appear. Patients are driven and very self-motivated to understand more about their disease and be engaged participants in their path, which means they are going to start demanding tools like this.

Traditional health systems will never fully be replaced because there's something truly human about the interaction when it comes to your personal health journey. I really see a world where these tools allow health systems to become more efficient. That kind of proactive versus the reactive way of care, technology can really enhance that, especially when it comes to identifying the patients at risk in a health system.

I also recognise that AstraZeneca is a large pharmaceutical company. Huma can't solve all our problems, it is no one solution. But Huma crucially has that partnership point of view as well. Huma knows that they bring a certain piece of the puzzle, but it requires multiple pieces working together to deliver a beautiful picture in the end. And so I think from a cultural perspective, that's what set us up for success because there is a true sense of humility. There is a mission to drive improved care for patients, and there's a hunger to collaborate and learn together. This is very much the tip of the spear of innovation.

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Making an impact

3000+

3000+ hospitals and clinics supported across Huma platforms to secure the most sustainable impact for patients1

×2

Our platform can almost double clinical capacity and reduce readmission rates by >30%3

27m+

Huma's digital-first health platforms support a network of 27m patients1

1m+

Over 1 million devices have been shipped in support of our projects and we know what it takes to deploy at scale1

Winner of the 2022 Prix Galien award for digital health, widely regarded as 'pharma's Nobel prize'4

Selected as one of 'The Most Important Healthcare Design of 2021' by Fast Company5

Winner of the 2022 Prix Galien award for digital health, widely regarded as 'pharma's Nobel prize'4

Winner of the 2022 Prix Galien award for digital health, widely regarded as 'pharma's Nobel prize'4

Sources:

Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023
Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023

Huma joins digital pioneers to advance health equity in care and research

Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Dan Vahdat, is returning to the annual World Economic Forum’s main conference where he will join a panel discussion devoted to improving care for non-communicable disease and tackling health equity. Accompanied by Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, Ingeborg Oie, Dan is looking forward to connecting with other attendees to explore how Huma’s digital health platform can make healthcare more equitable, and advances proactive, predictive care.

Huma joins digital pioneers to advance health equity in care and research

Date:Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Time:4:15 - 5:15 p.m. CET
Location:Ice Village, Eisbahnstrasse 5, Davos, Switzerland
Dan will join the Digital Health Action Alliance panel at Davos to discuss Turning the Tide in Non-Communicable Disease Care Through Digital Health and Community Connection. Huma has a long history of advancing the care of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and lung conditions. Huma’s innovative remote patient monitoring platform enables broad patient recruitment, reduces reliance on in-person clinic visits and increases health system efficiency.
*This session is open to registered Annual Meeting 2023 participants and Affiliate badge holders.

Huma is one of the first to sign the Zero Health Gaps Pledge

Huma is one of the first signatories to the Zero Health Gaps Pledge, the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Equity Network’s (GHEN) initiative. Huma supports GHEN’s ambition to build a future without disparities in health or wellbeing outcomes. Huma’s digital platform has been built on a deep clinical knowledge of complex patient needs and how people engage with technology and we are committed to ensuring our technology promotes health equity. We are proud to work with governments, hospital groups, universities, life science and technology companies to bring greater scale and impact and help all people live longer, fuller lives.

Huma at World Economic Forum

Global Innovators and Tech Pioneers
Dec 2022: Huma selected to join 100 innovative companies on a two-year journey as part of the World Economic Forum’s initiatives, activities and events, bringing their cutting-edge insight and fresh thinking to critical global discussions.
Learn more
Working Together, Restoring Trust
May 2022: With the aim to address economic, environmental, political, and social fault-lines exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dan Vahdat speaks at WEF annual meeting about the importance of scientific collaboration.
Learn more
Accelerating innovation and breaking new ground
October 2022: Dan joined the WEF Biotech Future Forum 2022 to discuss how start-ups are breaking new ground in biotech and changing the way we interact with the world, but also how the sector can earn trust, scale successfully and spot the brightest innovations.
Learn more
Making connections at Davos
Jan 2019: Dan attended WEF as an unofficial attendee and spoke to CNBC about the importance of meeting in-person to make connections.
Learn more

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Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023
Media contact
A headshot of Karen Birmingham PhD
Karen Birmingham PhD
Head of PR & Communications
karen.birmingham@huma.com
Blog

Huma + AstraZeneca: pioneering end-to-end digital-first care and research

February 27, 2023
Media contact
A headshot of Karen Birmingham PhD
Karen Birmingham PhD
Head of PR & Communications
karen.birmingham@huma.com

2022 was a landmark year for Huma. Our consistent focus throughout 2022 and into 2023 continues to be on building quality partnerships that allow us to collaborate and deliver on our mission, enabling people to live longer, fuller lives.

In March, we announced our pioneering partnership with the world-leading pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca (AZ) to scale innovation in digital health. Our history of close cooperation and a shared ambition to improve clinical outcomes makes for the perfect partnership. Together, we’ll be united by a shared mission and drive to deploy digital health solutions that bridge the gap between patients and clinicians and advance diversity through hybrid and decentralized clinical trials.

We spoke to Abby Staible, AZ’s Director of Commercial Digital Health, to explore her thoughts on how our pioneering partnership will accelerate the impact of digital health technology.

Q: In March we announced our digital partnership. How has this pioneering venture evolved since then?

A: It has been an absolute whirlwind. When we started, we didn't know each other at all. It was a massive ambition. AstraZeneca is a large pharmaceutical company, with 80,000 employees and we were partnering with a growth-stage digital health technology company with roughly 300 employees. We had to learn to speak the same language, understand each other's processes and through it all build trust. We had to really build from the ground up, working with our healthcare partners in the ecosystem to establish a go-to-market and deployment strategy, plan the technology build and patient journey mapping and think about everything else that goes into building healthcare technology.

We’ll soon be live in the US with our asthma platform with a pipeline of other healthcare partners for 2023, which is extremely exciting. We've completed a virtual ward solution in partnership with some of the clinical teams in the NHS that will align with the NHS as virtual ward efforts across multiple disease states. We focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to start and we're looking at expanding across multiple geographies.

I can honestly say it's people that made that dream a reality and I couldn't be more proud of the organizations and sitting here seeing what we've accomplished. From the very beginning, we aligned on what we wanted to do, which was to improve the care of the patients we serve. These digital platforms were a way to enhance the medical relationship between patient and provider. It wasn't a replacement. It was an enhancement. All with the shared end goal of driving better outcomes for patients.

Q: Why did AstraZeneca choose to partner with Huma?

A: The pharmaceutical industry, as one of the major players in the healthcare ecosystem, has had to shift its approach to engaging with patients and providers. Over the last few years, primarily because of the COVID pandemic, patients weren't going in to see their providers. Our teams weren't able to connect with providers because we weren't able to go in to those settings. We saw a massive rise in telemedicine then, but now we're also seeing a drop in telemedicine because that's only one point solution.

“We’ve been talking about a digital revolution in health care for years now, but we just haven't really seen the kind of match that triggered the explosion of innovation.” Abby Staible, AstraZeneca, Director of Commercial Digital Health.

As a pharmaceutical company, we’re looking to translate the phenomenal clinical research we do to build guideline-based therapies and clinical pathways, into clinical practice. And digital is the path to do that. But we have to consider the resource required to build and manufacture digital therapeutics. Of course, companion apps, AI and machine learning to identify populations at risk all come with regulation requirements, because you're dealing with clinical settings and patients' well-being. It requires a level of expertise from technology, clinical insight and change management, that doesn't typically sit inside a pharma company.

This partnership with Huma has been an amazing learning experience of how a large pharmaceutical company can continue to lead in this space by delivering digital tools at the point of care to patients and providers, but not distracting us from our core business: Building the best-in-class, clinical evidence to support the molecules that we're bringing to market and improving the pathway of bringing those molecules to the bedside, at the point of care.

Q: Is the movement towards digital healthcare slowing down?

A: Healthcare technology had seen a massive rise in external investments in the marketplace over the last couple of years, and then 2022 hit. We've seen a significant drop in that external investment. So there's a lot of fear and questions as to the viability of all of this noise that has existed within healthcare technology. But, I think this presents a phenomenal opportunity, as we look to 2023 and beyond.

For example, we know that patients with chronic conditions, like heart failure, don’t just have heart failure. They're comorbid. They have heart failure plus diabetes, and they're on their way to progressing to renal disease. So the multiple point of care solutions don’t work anymore, it needs to be a platform approach. And this has become the buzzword. We've heard it at all the healthcare technology conferences this year, and it will continue to be the buzzword, because not only have we created noise for patients, we've created so much noise for our healthcare providers. They work in the electronic health record, they do not work in 20 different dashboards that require multiple web logins, because their patients also are comorbid. These point-of-care solutions have their own dashboards that don't integrate into their workflow.

So with Huma, we wanted to build one experience, for both patient and provider, in a modular fashion. We needed to ensure we were going through only a short development cycle if we needed to customise the platform for a specific clinical pathway. And that we could integrate devices across numerous use cases. And of course, ensure all that data would flow to the provider at the point of care, not requiring 20 extra clicks. And Huma really accelerated that vision, because Huma built that exact platform.

“When it comes to innovation, it’s the companies and tools that are going to stand out. It’s the ones that have ongoing use, are truly patient and clinician centred in their design and functionality, and have scientific evidence that back that it does actually drive improved clinical outcomes and reduce cost, and at the end of the day, delight the users.” Abby Staible, AstraZeneca, Director of Commercial Digital Health.

Q: What's coming up for digital health in 2023 and beyond?

A: Generations are changing. We’re seeing a more technology-savvy, consumer-centric, experience appear. Patients are driven and very self-motivated to understand more about their disease and be engaged participants in their path, which means they are going to start demanding tools like this.

Traditional health systems will never fully be replaced because there's something truly human about the interaction when it comes to your personal health journey. I really see a world where these tools allow health systems to become more efficient. That kind of proactive versus the reactive way of care, technology can really enhance that, especially when it comes to identifying the patients at risk in a health system.

I also recognise that AstraZeneca is a large pharmaceutical company. Huma can't solve all our problems, it is no one solution. But Huma crucially has that partnership point of view as well. Huma knows that they bring a certain piece of the puzzle, but it requires multiple pieces working together to deliver a beautiful picture in the end. And so I think from a cultural perspective, that's what set us up for success because there is a true sense of humility. There is a mission to drive improved care for patients, and there's a hunger to collaborate and learn together. This is very much the tip of the spear of innovation.

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About Huma

Huma began its journey in 2011, when the company was founded in London. Since then, Huma has grown to become a global healthcare company, spanning across multiple geographies and operating across four continents.

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