Course: Assessment of US Food and Drug Administration–Approved Digital Medical Devices for Just-in-Time Interventions: A Systematic Review
CME Credits: 1.00
Released: 2023-07-17
Key Points
Question Is the public information available from the US Food and Drug Administration on digital medical devices used in just-in-time interventions (JITIs) transparent enough to understand their operation, performance and effectiveness?Findings This systematic review appraised 38 product summaries of digital medical devices that were approved from 2019 to 2021. Only 26.3% of the product summaries allowed a full understanding of how the devices operated to deliver JITIs, and less than 50% reported on their performance and effectiveness.
Meaning The results of this systematic review suggest that product summaries of US Food and Drug Administration–approved digital devices used in JITIs often include heterogeneous information.
Abstract
Importance Just-in-time interventions (JITIs) are a type of digital therapeutic intervention that combines remote monitoring tools and algorithms to personalize the delivery of specific interventions at the right time. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory approval documents are often the only available source of information on the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions based on these devices.Objective To systematically review the publicly available information from the FDA on all recently approved medical devices used in JITIs to (1) assess how they operate to deliver JITIs and (2) appraise the evidence supporting their performance and clinical effectiveness.
Evidence Review Two reviewers systematically searched the Premarket Notifications (510(k)), Premarket Approvals, De Novo, and Humanitarian Device Exemption databases from January 2019 to December 2021 for all entries associated with devices that monitored patients’ data over time to personalize the delivery of interventions to treat, prevent, or mitigate health conditions or events. They assessed whether the product summaries (1) enabled an understanding of how the device operated to deliver a JITI (eg, the nature, type, and frequency of the monitoring, the nature of the decision algorithm, and the nature and intended receiver of the intervention); (2) informed about the performance and effectiveness of the JITI; and (3) included information on data security and ownership.
Findings In total, 38 devices were included in this review. These were mainly intended for cardiac conditions (12 [31.6%]), diabetes (10 [26.3%]), and neurological diseases (4 [10.5%]). Monitoring devices ranged from wearable (18 of 28 [64.4%]; eg, smartwatches) to implanted sensors (6 of 28 [21.4%]; eg, inserted electrocardiographic sensors). Only 10 of 38 product summaries (26.3%) allowed a full understanding of how the device operated to deliver a JITI. Similarly, only 12 of 28 (42.9%), 12 of 36 (33.3%), and 5 of 38 (13.2%) reported the assessment of the performance of the monitoring device, assessment of the decision algorithm, and results of clinical studies assessing the effectiveness of the JITI, respectively. Finally, 14 of 36 product summaries (38.9%) included some information on data security, but none included information on data ownership.
Conclusion and Relevance The results of this systematic review suggest that the information publicly available in the FDA databases on the performance and effectiveness of digital medical devices used in JITIs is heterogeneous.
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article
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