Leveraging Voice Biomarkers for Real World Solutions

In the rapidly evolving pharmaceutical landscape, companies are continuously seeking innovative ways to streamline the drug development processes, improve patient adherence, and expand the pool of incremental scripts. One of the most promising advancements in this realm is in the use of voice biomarkers. By analyzing vocal characteristics, voice biomarkers offer a non-invasive, efficient, and scalable solution to some of the most pressing challenges in growth.

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Improving Operational Efficiency, Data Acquisition, and Patient Experience

The journey from drug discovery to market is long and fraught with obstacles. Traditional methods of patient monitoring and data collection can be time-consuming and expensive. Voice biomarkers present a game-changing opportunity to streamline these processes and provide real-time data capture at a fraction of the cost.

Voice biomarker technology enables real-time monitoring of patients’ mental health status and other health conditions through their speech patterns. By integrating this technology into call centers and telehealth interactions, pharmaceutical companies can gather continuous, objective data on patient wellbeing. This data can support a better understanding of medication adherence when comorbid with depression and/or anxiety, improving mental health visibility and its acuity, and based on an API infrastructure, capture notes without human administration. In a companion app, providing a voice memo can capture additional data on changes to mental health in titration or longitudinal care.



In working with a digital health companion app for cardiovascular therapy, Kintsugi is able to augment patient monitoring with Kintsugi Voice, a voice biomarker technology to measure signs of clinical depression and anxiety acuity from samples as short as 20 seconds of free-form speech. Kintsugi is natively integrated into Zoom’s telehealth capabilities and in the process of monitoring patients each week, Kintsugi captures valuable, objective scoring related to a patient’s change in mental health acuity, passively. Kintsugi can become a fast, effective adjunct to current workflows, providing patients and caretakers with real-time mental health data, and prioritizing the comfort and continuation of a drug regimen.

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Enhancing Patient Adherence

Patient adherence to prescribed medication regimens is crucial for the success of any treatment. Unfortunately, non-adherence is a significant issue, leading to suboptimal treatment outcomes and increased healthcare costs. Voice biomarkers can play a pivotal role in addressing this challenge.

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By regularly analyzing patients’ speech, voice biomarker technology can detect signs of depression, anxiety, or cognitive decline, which are often linked to poor medication adherence. Payors use this information to intervene early, offering personalized support and adjustments to treatment plans as needed. Additionally, this technology can provide insights into patients’ daily routines and potential barriers to adherence, allowing for more tailored and effective interventions.

In the early stages of working with a large, national PBM, Kintsugi is integrated into specialty pharmacy call center lines via Genesys Cloud and augmented data streams of pharmacist calls and members that include mental health acuity which can be instrumental in providing additional attention for members with undiagnosed depression which can be a leading driver for non-adherence.

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Expanding Access and Script Growth Along the Patient Journey

As Kintsugi’s work progresses across payors and health system call centers, each call center provides 25K calls per month and with 25% depression prevalence in chronic condition cases and 30% undiagnosed, Kintsugi typically finds 1,875 eligible members for treatment. At scale with metadata labels including condition comorbidities, provides an enriched member funnel for longitudinal treatment tracking and titration results. At 20 call centers, Kintsugi is screening 6M calls per year and providing a highly-targeted member population for additional therapeutics and/or trials across conditions.

Kintsugi Connect is a marketplace of mental health treatments and therapies aimed by acuity and plan for each member based on the call center Kintsugi Voice integrated experience, providing an easy way for members to get access to the right level of care at their time of need. Kintsugi is currently working with a curated group of non-overlapping providers in Connect Beta.

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Real-World Solutions for Better Health Outcomes

The application of voice biomarkers extends beyond clinical trials and adherence monitoring. In real-world settings, this technology can be leveraged in all call centers, telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and digital health companion applications to meet patients where they are at. By providing continuous and objective data on patient health, voice biomarkers create a new wave of opportunities for more proactive, personalized, and scalable insights.

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Conclusion

Voice biomarker technology represents a significant advancement in the healthcare industry. By accelerating operational efficiency and data capture, enhancing patient adherence, and expanding the patient pool for new scripts, voice biomarkers offer real-world solutions to some of the most critical challenges in pharma. As this technology continues to evolve, its integration into various aspects of the patient journey promises to deliver better health outcomes and drive innovation in commercial growth.