How can we improve eye tracking for a more accurate assessment of someone's neurocognitive function? What is someone's likelihood of developing dementia? What's the best treatment for patients with substance abuse disorder or depression that effectively engages them in treating their conditions?

The relatively new field of digital treatments and diagnostics offers valuable answers to critical medical questions such as these. It's a space where the healthcare industry is currently on the leading edge of change, moving from what was once mere theory and conjecture to rapid change and adoption as these types of technologies become more readily available.

In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast, three healthcare leaders — David Benshoof Klein, Executive Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Click Therapeutics, Laura Yecies, former Chief Executive Officer at SyncThink, and Trip Hofer, Chief Executive Officer at AbleTo — explore with host Fritz Heese, a Health & Life Sciences Partner at Oliver Wyman, at the 2019 Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit in Chicago why digital therapeutics are on the cusp of becoming mainstream and what specific problems digital treatments may solve within the next five years.

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Memorable Moments From This Episode:

• "Patients are ready to use effective technology to help with treatments. ... Regulators have shown they’ve been collaborative and fostering of this innovation and have begun to clear software as medical devices. … Anyone who can read the writing on the wall probably should. It’s no longer a question of will these enter mainstream. It’s when and how prevalent they will be."

• "If you have a brain health condition where it doesn't show up in an MRI or a cat scan, we are generally left with very subjective metrics. Things like neurocognitive tests, visual evaluation by the clinician, the patient's reporting of symptoms are useful but not objective, quantifiable metrics. ... We're seeing these technologies go mainstream because they're filling a void of lack of objective, quantifiable data."

• "In behavioral health, having a digital therapeutic available is almost a must. Without it, there won’t be enough individual people to see someone face-to-face to meet up with supply, especially when you take Millennials into consideration and them having a much different approach to behavioral health. For them, the stigma of behavioral health is a lot less than for an older population."