What is Elsa Science doing in the US?

The Elsa app has users in both Europe and the US, but is, to some extent, used in different ways on the different continents. The differences are mainly due to all the national rules and conditions that a company working with, or in connection with, healthcare needs to comply with. We will now explain what Elsa Science is doing in the US.

Alexandra Lindfors is Head of Global Business Development at Elsa Science. She says that patients with rheumatic diagnoses use the Elsa app to collect data on how they feel over time, both in the US and in Europe.

“But some clinics in the US have a tool where doctors and nurses can also see and follow how the patients are doing, based on what the patients log in the app,” she explains.

What are the benefits of this?

“Healthcare personnel can—with your help—keep track of how you feel between your physical doctor visits. It can be of great help to those who, for example, are on a new medication, and who can quickly get help with adjusting the dose or switching to another medication, if necessary.”

“Or maybe you feel there is something going on in your body, a deterioration that you don't know what it is due to. Then your doctor can look at how and what you logged, get an idea of what is happening, and be able to help you without unnecessary delay. Your data is there as a structured basis and provides security in the assessment,” says Alexandra.

She also emphasizes that it becomes easier for the patient and the doctor to have a fruitful conversation when they have a common picture of the situation to start from.

“And if the doctor and the patient agree that everything is fine and that a physical doctor's visit is not needed right now, then the patient does not have to spend half a day at the clinic but can do something more enjoyable instead!”

Remote monitoring

The concept is called remote monitoring and has existed for quite some time in other parts of healthcare, e.g. to monitor heart disease and diabetes. Now it has also become an accepted way of keeping track of disease activity in rheumatology.

In the US, health care is closely linked to the insurance industry, and this too in most cases supports this way of working. This means that insurance companies reimburse the clinics for this type of care as well.

Frees up human resources

At the time of writing, Elsa Science is doing its best to spread this way of working to more clinics—primarily in the US, but in the long run the hope is that this can become standard also in Europe.

“We want to make it easier for the patient and the doctor in their interaction with each other. Having a clear and common starting point when you meet and being able to easily see if something unexpected happens means it becomes time efficient for both parties.”

“We believe in technology to free up human resources and give the doctor the opportunity to spend more time on things that a human being does better, such as communicating and talking to the patient,” concludes Alexandra.