The digital future beyond the pill

A recent story in the FT has the title Digital disrupters take big pharma ‘beyond the pill’ It gives a distinctive twist to the idea of digital drugs. The argument is that a phone app or similar, as a monitoring device and as a front end to diverse networked resources including counselling, can be a direct substitute for a pill and a doctor. So direct a substitute, the article argues, that big pharma are taking a strategic interest as digital innovations in delivery of health services and therapies threaten to ‘undermine the industry’s decades-old business model’.