Kim Moran, Ph.D., MBA, Head of US Rare Diseases at UCB, discusses the use of phish finder programs to find undiagnosed patients.
AI and data mining programs can help companies find persons with early symptoms of diseases based on clinical records. However, these phish finder programs are HIPAA compliant to ensure the privacy of the patient. Such programs can determine if a person with early symptoms of an undiagnosed condition is being seen by a particular physician.
Using that information, account managers can contact the physician and inform them they may have a patient with a condition. For example, records may show a patient’s recent complaints of visual problems, difficulty swallowing, muscle weakness, etc. This may lead to a quicker myasthenia gravis diagnosis.
Myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease due to antibodies attacking a person’s acetylcholine receptors in the neuromuscular junction. Common symptoms include weakness of the muscles that control the eyes, eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, talking, and swallowing. Weakness tends to increase during periods of activity and decrease after periods of rest.
To learn more about myasthenia gravis, go to checkrare.com/myasthenia-gravis/