Wearable Devices Help Predict Hospitalization Risk for Patients Receiving Chemoradiotherapy

NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Koneksa Health today announced a poster presentation of a study expanding initial findings that real-world data from activity trackers can predict hospitalization risk for patients having chemoradiotherapy better than traditional clinical assessments like performance status.

This study found that lower step counts were associated with increased risk of hospital admission during chemoradiotherapy for several solid tumor cancers, including cancers of the head/neck, lung, or gastrointestinal tract.

“We found that daily step count is a strong dynamic predictor of short-term hospitalization risk during chemoradiotherapy,” said Elena Izmailova, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Koneksa Health and lead author of the presentation. “Moreover, we found that traditional measurements, such as baseline ECOG Performance Status or quality-of-life assessments were not statistically significant predictors of hospitalization risk.”

The data will be presented on Saturday, Sept. 7 at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium  (ASCO QCS, #ASCOQLTY #ASCOQLTY19 ) in San Diego during Poster Session B: “Patient Experience; Safety; Technology and Innovation in Quality of Care” at Board J6 as Abstract 293.

“These findings demonstrate the tremendous potential of using activity data to optimize supportive care during cancer therapy,” said Nitin Ohri, M.D., attending physician, Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care; Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and the senior author of the paper. “Predicting and reducing hospitalizations can improve cancer care quality and value in multiple ways – from selecting patients most appropriate for chemoradiotherapy, to improving the treatment experience, to better promoting a healthful lifestyle in survivors.”

About Koneksa Health

Koneksa Health is a private company that enables the biopharmaceutical industry to develop new medicines with fewer patients. By unlocking the potential of real-world data from remote, wearable, and other digital technologies, Koneksa speeds up the time required to understand how a drug is working and helps to develop real-world evidence for how medicines can impact the daily lives of patients.