A new digital health company, ATX Therapeutics, has been formed to create evidence-based digital therapeutic products to address specific chronic health conditions and associated risk behaviors in the U.S. The company is headquartered in Austin and led by founder and CEO Adam Falat.
Digital therapeutics are a new category of evidence-based products within the broader digital health landscape. They are designed to integrate into patient lifestyles and provider workflows to deliver fully integrated healthcare experiences with improved health and financial outcomes. ATX Therapeutics will release its initial digital therapeutic product this fall directly to healthcare consumers via the iOS and Android mobile platforms, providing behavioral interventions to people most at risk of developing chronic health conditions.
“As one of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S., as well as the leading driver of the nation’s $3.3 trillion annual health care costs, chronic diseases have a staggering toll on our country,” said Falat. “By addressing key risk behaviors that cause most chronic diseases, as well as providing guidance to those currently living with one or more chronic conditions, ATX Therapeutics will leverage readily available technology to deliver personalized digital interventions to those who need it most.”
The CDC estimates that six in ten American adults have at least one chronic disease, and four in ten adults have two or more. Seven in ten adults die each year from chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease. Ninety percent of the nation’s $3.3 trillion annual health care expenditure are for people with chronic health conditions. Many chronic diseases are caused by a short list of risk behaviors, such as tobacco use, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity and excessive alcohol use.
Prior to founding ATX Therapeutics, Falat led widely recognized consumer digital health teams at Walgreens and athenahealth. At Walgreens, Falat helped build the drugstore chain’s first digital healthcare platform, which included online prescription refills used by over 3 million customers every month, and the largest retail mHealth program for managing chronic health conditions with over 1 million connected devices. At athenahealth, Falat oversaw the consumer health product portfolio for a national network of 100 million patients and 160,000 providers. Falat has received numerous recognitions during his career, including MedTech Boston’s “40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovator” award, and is regularly engaged to speak at digital health industry events and publications.