Digital biomarkers: an initiative to help researchers navigate new reality and roles
May 2021

Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST have created the Digital Health Catalyst (DHC) in response to the growing need for research and application in the area of real-world digital measurements. ###According to a Lynn Rochester, coordinator of Mobilise-D and Wan Fai Ng, coordinator of IDEA-FAST, the DHC intends to foster the next generation of early career researchers and clinicians in the field of digital healthcare. It will bring together ‘the collective expertise in digital health across the two IMI consortia for maximum learning, collaboration and impact’.

Accepted methods like questionnaires are subjective and don’t quite capture changes in the severity of a person’s condition. If remote assessment and the use of digital biomarkers as indicators of health are to be adopted widely, priorities will have to be established with regards to education and training, career pathways, cross-disciplinary opportunities and requirements for support and development. During the DHC launch event, early career researchers listed their priorities as skills development, exchange programmes and internships, engaging with the various relevant stakeholders and attending seminars.

The DHC will be a standalone sustainable entity that can attract funding and expand its remit to additional areas to promote and catalyse the field of digital health.

Find out more

• Read the article in full

Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST team up on digital health technologies
February 2021

Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST, two IMI projects that aim to develop real-world digital outcomes, have announced their plan to collaborate, to bring synergy and increase the impact and benefits of the digital health technologies developed by both projects. ###The collaboration will exploit common themes and approaches across the projects, to develop digital biomarkers in mobility, sleep and fatigue, including large observational studies involving diverse patient cohorts. The topics of collaboration include areas such as ethics, principles of external data-sharing, regulatory approaches, dissemination activities, training and education, and working with stakeholders.

Professors Lynn Rochester and Wan-Fai Ng from Newcastle University, the coordinators of Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST respectively, state: ‘We are delighted with this collaboration which cements the intended relationship seen from the inception of the projects, and look forward to the extended impact and reach possible by formalising our ongoing collaboration.’

For their part, the projects’ EFPIA leads, Dr Ronenn Roubenoff (Novartis, Mobilise-D) and Dr Frederic Baribaud (Janssen, IDEA-FAST) identify the future benefits of the inclusion of digital biomarker approach in clinical trials to develop and evaluate pharmaceutical interventions.

Professor Walter Maetzler, who participates in both projects commented: ‘What could be more advantageous than to consistently combine the strengths of both projects and thus increase the impact for patients and medicine?’

Mobilise-D focuses on mobility assessment in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and proximal femoral fracture and IDEA-FAST on the assessment of fatigue, sleep disturbances and instrumental activities in neurodegenerative disorders (Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease) and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (inflammatory bowel diseases, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome). Both projects aim to develop and validate digital biomarkers towards regulatory approvals.

Find out more

• Visit the IDEA-FAST website
• Visit the Mobilise-D website

Unravelling the enigma of autoimmune diseases – an opinion piece by Pierre Meulien
June 2020

We like to think of the immune system as a surveillance mechanism for the body that’s standing guard, ready to weed out and kill anything harmful. But for people with an autoimmune disorder, it doesn’t work that way; deregulated, it fights our own tissue instead of protecting it. ###And while we might have some success in treating the symptoms, we are largely in the dark as to why treatments work for some and not for others, as well as what triggers the disease in the first place. In an opinion piece published on the IMI website, IMI Executive Director Pierre Meulien explores IMI’s portfolio in this important disease area.

‘One of things that IMI is particularly proud of is the progress we’ve made in the reclassification of subtypes of disease, which means redefining diseases based on their biology and not just symptoms,’ he writes. ‘It’s an extremely scientifically complex area, and we’re steadily increasing the level of understanding of the molecular drivers in a number of disease areas.’

IMI is also very active in remote assessment. ‘This tech convergence is a trend, and we will see more and more sophisticated remote monitoring which will change the game in clinical trials,’ writes Dr Meulien, citing IMI’s Trials@Home and IDEA-FAST projects.

Find out more

• Read the opinion piece
• Watch our video on autoimmune disease research