IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD:

Software applications--apps--drive everything about how we function in the world. But can apps function as medicine? Can they treat our health problems, or better yet, prevent them?

An organization founded in 2017 called the Digital Therapeutics Alliance believes that software can prevent, treat, and manage a range of health issues. And now its members, armed with stacks of peer reviewed papers, are trying to get the government to write legislation that creates a pathway for their success.

"Think of us as a digital drug," says Big Health founder Peter Hames. The company has two mobile apps, Daylight, which treats anxiety, and Sleepio, which treats insomnia. The apps deliver cognitive behavioral therapy, a skills based therapy that, through a virtual professor, teaches you techniques for falling asleep and mitigating anxiety. It also asks users to log progress through a sleep diary. This level of data collection allows Big Health to document whether or not its app is working.

Together, the two apps have been the subject of 56 peer-reviewed clinical papers, of which 13 included randomized controlled trials, involving 13,000 participants.  There is fairly thorough data supporting their usefulness, because the effects of apps--just like drugs--can be measured and validated. "More participants have taken part in controlled studies of Sleepio, our insomnia therapeutic, than have ever taken part in studies of Ambien," says Hames.

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