Optime Care President and CEO Donovan Quill byline article featured on December 30, 2020: Patient-First Model: High Tech Meets High Touch for Individuals with Rare Disorders

Industry experts state that orphan drugs will be a major trend to watch in the years ahead, accounting for almost 40% of Food and Drug Administration approvals this year. This market has become more competitive in the past few years, increasing the potential for reduced costs and broader patient accessibility. Currently, these products are often expensive because they target specific conditions and cost on average $147,000 or more per year, making commercialization optimization particularly critical for success.

At the same time precision medicine is emerging as a trend for population health management. This approach utilizes advances in new technologies and data to unlock information and better target health care efforts within populations. Personalized medicine has the capacity to detect the onset of disease at its earliest stages, pre-empt the progression of disease and increase the efficiency of the health care system by improving quality, accessibility and affordability.

When it comes to personalized medicine for the rare and orphan disease patients, the key to effective care is to balance technology solutions with methods for addressing human needs and variability.  This article highlights the importance of a patient-first model enhances population health management for individuals with orphan and rare disorders.