CIMIT News

Medical technology company Jana Care announced that it is collaborating with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to study the effectiveness of a mobile application (app) for the self-management of congestive heart failure. Recruitment of heart failure patients at MGH has just begun, and the study is expected to conclude by the end of 2017. The study is being funded by a grant from the Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology (CIMIT) through their Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN) program.

Through its POCTRN program funded by NIBIB, CIMIT drives the development of point-of-care diagnostic technologies through collaborative efforts that merge scientific and technological capabilities with clinical need. "We are pleased with Jana Care's progress and look forward to the study results," said John Parrish, CIMIT CEO and Principal Investigator for the POCTRN program.

“As clinicians managing patients with heart failure, we can only pass on so much information and skills to a patient during an office visit. Clinical practice guidelines emphasize the importance of self-care and patient education to improve outcomes. A user-friendly app may provide an opportunity for patients to build good habits and better manage their conditions – and achieve these important goals.” said James Januzzi, MD, a cardiologist at MGH.

The mobile application, Heart Habits, was developed by Jana Care. It provides an easy-to-use interface for heart failure patients to learn how to manage their lifestyle and monitor their heart failure symptoms. The Heart Habits app provides a daily checklist to guide patients to take bite-sized lessons, track their weight, sodium and fluid intake, and check in on their symptoms.

Twice a week, or in the event of substantial weight gain, patients will be prompted to take a survey to assess the severity of their symptoms. Depending on the severity of the survey, patients will be advised to either call their doctors or 911, or simply check in with their providers later. Their symptom results and progress are shared with the study investigators via a web dashboard. Patients can also contact their study team via the chat functionality in the app.

Participating patients will be enrolled for 6 weeks. At the end of study, their knowledge of heart failure and a self reported quality of life assessment will be compared to those of in the control group.

“In designing the Habits Heart application, we considered both the clinician and patient experience carefully. Cardiologists from MGH provided input based on their clinical expertise in content and patient management. We combined this deep area knowledge with Jana Care’s experience in creating scalable digital coaching programs [via the app] in an easy-to-use but engaging way for heart failure patients.” said A.J. Kumar, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Jana Care.

Heart failure is a complex disease process growing in number despite ongoing efforts to curb its expansion. Heart failure currently affects nearly 6 million patients in the United States alone and by 2030, that number is expected to increase to 8 million. Approximately 1 million hospitalizations identify heart failure as the primary diagnosis and nearly 1 in 4 heart failure patients will be re-hospitalized within 30 days of discharge. Furthermore, the mortality rate remains unacceptably high at 50% within 5 years of diagnosis and the direct costs of heart failure are expected to more than double from over $30 billion to $70 billion a year in 2030.

“Adherence to self-management is essential in improving outcomes in patients with heart failure. Implementing such strategies, however, is challenging,” commented Nasrien Ibrahim, MD, co-PI on the study and a cardiologist at MGH. “We hope that this clinical trial will help us understand the ability of heart failure patients to take a more active role in managing their symptoms.”

Jana Care, already the maker of several diabetes mobile applications, is experienced in designing scalable digital solutions for chronic disease management. Jana Care has also developed an affordable smartphone-connected blood monitoring device, Aina, that can perform a variety of blood tests including HbA1c, Lipid Profile, Hemoglobin and Blood Glucose. It is currently also developing an NT-proBNP test to enable cost-effective monitoring of heart failure patients with plans to launch in the US in 2018.

The Habits Heart study is published on clinicaltrials.gov.

About Jana Care

Founded in 2011, Jana Care is a medical technology company that develops point-of-care diagnostics and digital coaching programs for the screening and management chronic diseases. Its novel CE marked diagnostic platform, Aina, enables testing of HbA1c, Blood Glucose, Lipid Profile and Hemoglobin using fingerstick blood samples, with new tests for NT-proBNP and Serum Creatinine in development. The company has also developed the Habits Program, a digital coaching program for patients with Diabetes and Congestive Heart Failure, in collaboration with leading academic medical centers globally. Jana Care is headquartered in Boston, USA, and has established an ISO 13485 certified production facility in Bangalore, India.

About POCTRN Center in Primary Care

Funded in 2012 for a five-year period by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN), CIMIT will create a national “center-without-walls” for rapid transformation of emerging point-of-care (POC) technologies into commercially viable, clinically focused solutions for improving primary health care.

About Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation and Technology (CIMIT)

CIMIT is a network of world-class academic and medical institutions partnering with industry and government with the mission to foster collaboration among clinicians, technologists, and entrepreneurs to accelerate innovation and catalyze the discovery, development, and implementation of innovative healthcare technologies.

Press contacts:

Veronica Chew
CMO, Jana Care 
vchew@janacare.com