Digital Therapeutics Summit Held at Dartmouth

Liz Murnane, Charles H. Gaut & Charles A. Norberg Assistant Professor of Engineering

Hosted by Geisel School of Medicine's Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) and Dartmouth's Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, the program provided an overview of the science and clinical practice of digital therapeutics, the current and anticipated paths to their global deployment, and a vision for the future.

This is the first time these groups have come together in conversations hosted by an academic institution about the digital health landscape and may well be viewed as a seminal moment in the rapidly developing field.

Digital therapeutics—software used to prevent, treat, or manage medical disorders or disease—encompasses a model of care in a seamless delivery system by improving access to care, quality of care, and treatment outcomes while reducing costs for a wide array of patients in diverse settings.

Three Dartmouth faculty affiliated with CTBH presented their research including Elizabeth Murnane, Charles H. Gaut and Charles A. Norberg Assistant Professor of Engineering, who designs interactive health technologies that promote equitable and inclusive care around biopsychosocial aspects of well-being. She presented a case study about wearable devices used for music-based interactions in pain management and for musical feedback during physical therapy. In both instances, she said, patients are musicians, and their bodies are instruments. When the devices are worn during physical therapy, music remains harmonious if the exercises are done correctly, when done incorrectly the music becomes dissonant, alerting the patient to be more mindful of form.