The Japanese digital health company Welby unveiled in March 2017 that it has partnered with Janssen, a pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson (US), to develop a mobile application for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD).
Called Aozora, the app created by Welby will be available in Japan on iOS and Android and distributed by Janssens for people with ADHD who are prescribed medication.
A mobile app for medication adherence of people with ADHD
The system sends notifications to users to remind them to take their medication and features goal-setting and schedule management tools to encourage them to change some of their behaviors and to progress day after day.
Reducing the number of careless mistakes is one of the Welby’s objectives but the main goal of its application is medication adherence.
Welby has currently ten pharmaceutical clients, including Janssen and AstraZeneca, an English biopharmaceutical group. The Japanese company makes applications and open data collection and aggregation platforms for doctors, health systems and pharma companies directly to manage conditions.
The application is part of Janssen’s Healthy Mind program, an initiative created to combat stigmatization of people with mental illness in the Asia-Pacific region. The US society has previously developed apps with Welby for use by patients with prostate cancer and chronic pain, and is looking to expand its business into more therapeutic areas.
Welby has created an open platform to centralize patient data
Welby’s activity and the use of its application are limited to the Asia-Pacific region but their impact is quite important. The company has deployed a unique approach to digital health tools by working directly with global pharmaceutical groups for the distribution of its device in Japan.
Founded in 2011, Welby is licensed as a medical device company but has also been involved in various areas of the health technology sector. The start-up has created an open platform to centralize personal health records and various health data, which can connect to medical devices, activity trackers and manual-input data from lab tests or prescriptions.
The use of health mobile applications is still marginal in Japan
« The situation in Japan is different than the US, especially for the mobile area, said Hideki Inoue, Welby’s Executive Officer for the Medical Solution Unit (source: MobiHealthNews.com). We have most of the foreign pharmaceutical companies, and most are looking at developing a mobile app in Japan, but there are very few companies who can do that. »
Moreover, interoperability between information systems is not as advanced in Japan as it is in the United States, which is why the use of the platform developed by Welby is not yet widespread.
« With a daily app, the aim is to really improve patient engagement and adherence by allowing the patient to clearly communicate symptoms and log them, which is really challenging to do in a regular five-minute appointment every few weeks, » said Inoue.
Welby wants to develop solutions in other areas of health
Welby began selling its products to the country’s health systems to ensure more accurate medical records. Then, the company extended its activities to pharmaceutical companies in the last couple of years.
Next step: growing its clinical research partnerships network. Welby don’t plan to expand outside Japan for now, but would like to expand its role in healthcare overall.
« Once we prove these solutions in Japan, on some of our biggest health concerns like aging, then we will see how they can be used in other countries. »