Chronic itch, or pruritus, is a common and challenging skin condition that significantly impacts quality of life. Monitoring itch severity, particularly during sleep, poses a unique challenge due to the lack of objective assessment methods. Traditional self-reports often lack accuracy, especially when evaluating nocturnal scratching. This gap in reliable data not only affected patient management but also hindered the development of targeted therapies.

To address this challenge, Galderma partnered with Embleema to develop the Itch Tracker—a tool designed to objectively measure scratching during sleep using wearable technology. By combining Galderma’s dermatological expertise with Embleema’s HIVE platform, the project aimed to empower patients while generating valuable real-world data for research.

The Challenge

For patients suffering from chronic itch, tracking the severity of symptoms during sleep was especially problematic. Traditional methods relied on self-assessment, which lacked the precision needed to capture nocturnal scratching patterns. As a result, patients and healthcare providers were often left without reliable data to guide treatment.

Additionally, data collected from wearable devices like smartwatches often lacked the quality and consistency required for regulatory use. The challenge was not just to capture accurate data but to ensure that the data met the rigorous standards necessary for clinical research and regulatory submission.

The Solution: Itch Tracker and HIVE

To overcome these challenges, Galderma and Embleema co-developed the Itch Tracker, an app designed to objectively track scratching movements during sleep using the Apple Watch. The app recorded each sleep session, capturing scratching motions, and provided a detailed report each morning. This objective tracking allowed patients to better understand their symptoms and discuss them more effectively with healthcare providers.

At the core of this innovation was Embleema’s HIVE platform (High-Performance Integrated Virtual Environment), a comprehensive bioinformatics and regulatory analytics platform. HIVE transformed raw data from the Itch Tracker into regulatory-grade evidence, ensuring the data’s accuracy and reliability. This made the data meaningful to researchers and met the high standards necessary for clinical and regulatory use.

The Itch Tracker, integrated into the Embleema app, not only helped patients manage their symptoms but also served as a research tool, enabling Galderma to collect real-world data. This dual functionality bridged the gap between patient experience and clinical research, making the data useful for both personal health management and scientific studies.

A view of the patient Itch Tracker app.

Impact

• High-Quality Real-World Data: The combination of wearable technology and the HIVE platform turned subjective self-reports into objective, actionable data.

  
  

• Regulatory Compliance: Leveraging HIVE’s data provenance capabilities ensured that data collected through the Itch Tracker met regulatory standards, making it valuable for clinical research.

  
  

• Enhanced Patient Insights: By objectively tracking scratch movements during sleep, the Itch Tracker helped patients understand their condition more clearly and discuss it with their doctors.

  
  

• Supporting Dermatological Research: The Itch Tracker not only improved symptom management for patients but also provided a reliable data source for Galderma’s research initiatives.

  
  

• Innovation in Dermatology: The collaboration between Galderma and Embleema demonstrated how wearable technology and bioinformatics could transform chronic itch management, paving the way for more precise treatments.

Want to learn how combining wearable tech with advanced data analytics improves chronic symptom tracking?