A London digital therapeutics business has today launched an app designed to capture critical data on the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis.
Called Eva, the platform includes tools for researchers, remote patient monitoring and includes features for patients to:
- Add symptoms and medications, with functionality for multiple symptoms and medicine routes of administration/dose/formulation
- Track symptom severity and medication use, with accessible data entry on academically validated scales
- Explore data for trends through interactive tools across the full history of medication dosages and timings
- Assess Quality of Life using validated scales and questionnaires. Eva launches with a clinically valid framework used by NICE in the UK
Eva means “Giver of life”, and has been built with empathy for the needs of patients and those working in the healthcare system. Academics from leading UK charity Drug Science have played a role in the design. Content from a range of organisations including the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society, Primary Care Cannabis Network, MedCannID, PLEA, and CPASS is integrated into Eva. The service is fully GDPR compliant and will include patient safety monitoring features and real-time reporting dashboards for clinicians.
Alta Flora’s research has found a range of challenges facing patients considering medical cannabis as a treatment. These include:
- A lack of data on medical cannabis products
- Stigma and ignorance in the healthcare system, and
- A lack of access to prescribers and products.
Gavin Sathianathan, CEO and founder of Alta Flora, commented: “It has been two years since cannabis was made legal for medical purposes in the UK and, since then, access to these life-changing medicines for patients has barely improved. This failure largely rests on a lack of data, the absence of which deprives doctors and clinicians of the confidence to prescribe it as a treatment. The evidence base produced by Eva will serve patient and industry needs in tandem, ensuring medical cannabis becomes accepted.”
“At Alta Flora, we want to empower patients to take control of their own healthcare through data. Even with the rise of AI-enabled technology in healthcare, we believe that the most revolutionary act remains listening to the voice of the patient. We stand in solidarity with patients using data to challenge convention – Eva will allow them to be heard by the healthcare system.”
Eva from Alta Flora is available to download from today on the Android store. The iOS version will be available from early December.
