New Mobile COPD Daily Assessment Solution From Bracket Reaches Key Certification Milestone

Bracket, an electronic Clinical Outcomes Assessments (eCOA) provider, recently announced that the company has completed a key certification along with partner Evidera™ for the EXACT patient daily e-Diary to be used on the Android mobile platform. By reaching this certification milestone, the Bracket eCOA solution is now the only certified provider of this technology for use on a tablet device.

Completion of the e-Diary Certification program enables Bracket to standardize its EXACT e-Diary eCOA solution to monitor chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which in turn can offer sponsors of clinical trials or CROs that are managing clinical trials efficient delivery of key trial participant data. eCOA allows for the accurate and streamlined collection of clinical trial information from participants, clinicians and investigators, compiling it into a comprehensive, accessible research tool that can be used across a wide range of programs, ranging from clinical trials to medication and disease management initiatives.

EXACT is a 14-item patient reported outcome (PRO) daily diary used to measure and count COPD exacerbations, which in clinical terms represent the worsening of a patient’s condition throughout the day. The technology takes into account variability in the respiratory symptoms, including dyspnea, cough, and sputum production that may require a change in treatment. The e-Diary allows the standardization of patient assessment, making it possible for the solution to capture all the fluctuations and variabilities in a more interactive and dynamic process. Bracket believes that the EXACT e-Diary is a revolutionary technology that allows the ongoing tracking of symptoms and the body’s progression, representing the future of COPD treatment and assessment.

Jim Primerano, Senior Vice President and GM, eClinical at Bracket noted that “The use of ePRO and eCOA solutions in clinical trials has grown in the past 2 years and Bracket sees immense value in providing validated outcomes instruments to facilitate the collection of key trial data. We are very pleased to incorporate the EXACT e-Diary into our ePRO library of instruments, extending more efficiency in delivery of eCOA solutions to our customers.”

Bracket’s EXACT e-Diary is not the only online platform being designed to address COPD. A Temple University spin-off biotech company called HGE Health Care Solutions is developing a new online COPD application that compiles COPD patients’ respiratory symptoms and records expiratory peak flow measurements. Each symptom is processed by an algorithm that associates a score to each symptom and then is compared with the initial symptoms’ values. This way, it is possible to determine a symptom’s deviation curve through which patients and healthcare teams can have a concrete perception on how serious the symptoms are by comparing the patients’ baseline metrics.

These new online, mobile solutions are believed to be potentially valuable patient health tools, not only for the management of COPD, but all chronic and progressive diseases where having real-time patient feedback can enable doctors to take immediate action and improve patient outcomes overall.