LinkDoc Technology and AstraZeneca Forge Strategic Partnership to Develop Digital Therapeutics for Comprehensive Oncology Patient Lifecycle Management

Recently, at the “2021 AstraZeneca China Ecosystem Conference,” LinkDoc and AstraZeneca signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two parties will leverage their respective strengths to comprehensively advance the implementation of integrated oncology diagnosis and treatment solutions and whole-lifecycle patient management, jointly develop innovative digital therapeutic products for lung cancer, and continuously improve clinical diagnostic and treatment efficiency as well as patient treatment benefits.

It is reported that LinkDoc and AstraZeneca have collaborated multiple times in recent years within China’s innovative healthcare ecosystem. By integrating upstream industrial R&D and commercial innovation with downstream digital online platform development and offline patient services, the two companies have formed a tightly coordinated healthcare ecosystem synergy. In 2019, together with leading domestic medical experts, they jointly developed the Nuwa Platform, a national integrated data platform for gynecologic oncology. To date, multiple research findings based on this platform have been published in internationally authoritative journals and presented at academic conferences.

The signing of this strategic agreement marks another deepened focus by both parties in the oncology field, following their collaboration on the “Nuwa Project.” Building on the successful experience of the Nuwa Project, the two parties will combine AstraZeneca’s expertise and insights in evidence-based medicine for lung cancer and the needs of patients and healthcare providers in disease diagnosis and treatment with LinkDoc’s digital health management platform. By integrating their respective channel and clinical resources, they aim to provide comprehensive, full-lifecycle services—including precise patient education, doctor–patient interaction and communication, follow-up care, pharmaceutical services, and rehabilitation support—thereby enabling specialists and physicians to precisely reach and manage patients and facilitating the implementation of integrated diagnostic and therapeutic solutions. On this basis, the parties will explore the application of digital therapeutics across multiple scenarios, including disease treatment and out-of-hospital management, and jointly develop digital therapeutic products tailored for lung cancer patients to achieve better treatment outcomes and maximize patient benefit.

Since the release of “Healthy China 2030,” China has consistently prioritized the protection of people’s health as a strategic development priority, requiring the establishment of a comprehensive health management system centered on public health that provides all-around and full-lifecycle safeguards for people’s well-being. Overall, China’s healthcare sector is also transitioning from disease treatment to holistic disease care.

In the field of oncology, the incidence and mortality rates of malignant tumors remain persistently high, creating an urgent clinical demand for innovative drugs and treatment regimens. This necessitates not only the provision of effective treatment plans by physicians within hospitals, along with innovations in diagnosis and therapy, but also comprehensive patient care outside hospital settings to improve rehabilitation experiences, enhance quality of life, and optimize healthcare payment mechanisms.

Out-of-hospital treatment and rehabilitation management, as a necessary continuation and supplement to clinical care, are increasingly drawing attention from the healthcare industry and society.

Out-of-Hospital Management for Domestic Patients Still Needs Improvement

At the “2021 Taihu Bay Life and Health Future Conference,” Zhang Tianze, Founder and CEO of LinkDoc, stated that the *China Cancer Patient Healthcare Migration Map* released by LinkDoc in 2016 showed that most cancer patients in China chose to seek treatment in “major cities” such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and then returned to their places of residence after completing initial treatment. As most hospitals in China lack their own follow-up systems, physicians find it difficult to conduct long-term patient follow-up and management, and patients also struggle to maintain long-term contact with their original hospitals and attending physicians.

The underlying reason lies in the fact that, with changes in the disease spectrum and treatment models, the traditional institution-led out-of-hospital management approach has exhibited multifaceted limitations, lacking precise and individualized tracking, which has resulted in follow-up outcomes falling short of expectations.

By retrospectively analyzing over 3 million follow-up call records, self-reported symptom records from 2,000 patients, and in-depth narrative records from 250 patients collected over more than six years, LinkDoc has identified and compiled nearly 50 significant unmet needs among cancer patients in the out-of-hospital setting. These needs span areas such as rehabilitation information, doctor-patient communication, humanistic care, psychological counseling, and coverage for diagnosis and treatment costs. Failure to identify and address these out-of-hospital issues in a timely manner will ultimately compromise patient treatment outcomes.

Relevant follow-up studies by LinkDoc have also shown that patients’ active participation in follow-up and out-of-hospital management yields greater personal benefits, with effects comparable to those of innovative drugs. Related international literature also indicates that the use of electronic case report forms for daily management reduces the incidence of adverse events, while remote symptom monitoring and reporting via mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic devices prolong overall survival.

Leveraging digital health tools such as remote monitoring for patient disease management can enhance patient engagement, thereby effectively improving survival benefits. Digital therapeutics, as a specialized segment of digital health, has long gained traction abroad.

New Healthcare—Digital Therapeutics: Not Just Out-of-Hospital Management

The concept of “Digital Therapeutics” was first proposed in 2015. According to the definition by the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), Digital Therapeutics (DTx) is a software-based therapy that provides patients with evidence-based therapeutic interventions to prevent, manage, or treat diseases. Digital therapeutics can be used independently or in conjunction with medications, devices, or other therapies.

Unlike health management apps, digital therapeutics (DTx) products abroad are commonly software or software-hardware combinations whose safety and efficacy have been validated through clinical trials. Unlike traditional pharmaceuticals, DTx offers greater safety and accessibility, allowing patients to access interventions via smartphones or tablets. Digital therapeutics can be applied across multiple scenarios, including disease prevention, treatment, and out-of-hospital management. By targeting specific disease areas and patient populations, DTx provides personalized intervention plans, enhances patient adherence, achieves superior therapeutic outcomes, and ultimately benefits patients. Furthermore, empowered by big data and advanced algorithms, DTx can continuously upgrade and iterate to improve its “therapeutic efficacy,” thereby delivering better prognoses for patients.

2020 was a year of explosive growth for digital health. The global pandemic caused by the coronavirus outbreak allowed digital health to demonstrate unique advantages in an environment where social functions were nearly paralyzed: enabling patients who could not normally visit hospitals to access necessary treatment plans through new channels. Digital therapeutics, as another innovative direction brought about by digital technology, not only allows physicians to conduct consultations or deliver treatments via remote access, but also enables personalized disease intervention and patient management based on the evolution of patients’ conditions.

The U.S. FDA has a clear review pathway for digital therapeutics, approving multiple digital therapeutic products for market launch in 2020:

· In March 2020, Pear Therapeutics’ Somryst was approved for the treatment of chronic insomnia in patients aged 22 years and older, becoming the first digital therapeutic approved for the treatment of insomnia; in the same month, Propeller Health’s Propeller Sensor for Symbicort was approved for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD);

· In April, WellDoc’s Blue Star Rx was approved for type 1 diabetes;

· In June, the world’s first “video game prescription drug,” EndeavorRx, was approved for the treatment of pediatric patients aged 8 to 12 years with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), marking the first realization of a new therapeutic modality and prescription scenario where “treatment does not require medication.”

Since then, multiple regulatory agencies worldwide have been poised to incorporate digital therapeutics into regulatory decision-making and reimbursement systems. China’s stance on digital therapeutics has gradually shifted from conservative to open. In November 2020, the Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved the first Class II medical device for digital therapeutics, marking the beginning of the era of digital therapeutics in China.

LinkDoc Takes the Lead in Exploring and Practicing Digital Therapeutics in the Field of Oncology

In 2020, LinkDoc established a digital therapeutics subsidiary—TriC Healthcare (Shuyu Medical Technology)—proposing to create an integrated, full-lifecycle management solution for cancer patients based on digital therapeutics, centered on patient benefit, guided by value-based healthcare, and supported by medical evidence. The company has also begun developing China’s first digital therapeutics product targeted at patients with early-stage lung cancer.

Zhang Tianze stated that LinkDoc has been consistently committed to a patient-centric approach, integrating full-lifecycle data—including in-hospital diagnostic and treatment data, out-of-hospital medication, rehabilitation, and follow-up data, genomic data, as well as long-term disease progression and survival information. Leveraging offline patient service centers and internet hospitals, LinkDoc bridges in-hospital and out-of-hospital scenarios through services such as online follow-up consultations, prescription refills and medication purchases, offline infusions, patient education, and psychological counseling/intervention. By collaborating with hospitals/physicians, industry experts, and industrial institutions, LinkDoc jointly builds digital health management platforms and digital therapeutic products to deliver precise, personalized out-of-hospital management for patients, thereby continuously improving their survival benefits.