Beyond Health Management and Nursing Services to DTx... Leading 'Digital Healthcare'

[DTx Era⑦] Im Jin-hwan, CEO of AimMed, "Treating Insomnia with Smartphone App Prescriptions"

AimMed is an integrated digital healthcare company specializing in employee health management, psychological counseling, and chronic disease management. Based on professional personnel, digital solutions, and a medical network, it is steadily growing in the fields of health screening platforms, mental health platforms, and nursing facility and caregiving matching platforms. In response to the increasing trend of elderly and dementia patients, it is also preparing nursing facilities integrated with digital healthcare services. 'The Era of DTx'

Building on its experience in the healthcare field, AimMed turned its attention to digital therapeutics (DTx). In 2020, it received 2.8 billion KRW in support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and developed 'Somzz' for insomnia treatment in collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital, Samsung Seoul Hospital, and Korea University Anam Hospital. In the second half of last year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the DTx confirmatory clinical trial plan, and the clinical trial was completed in the first half of this year.

Somzz is designed for insomnia patients to use over 6 to 9 weeks. Patients write a daily sleep diary through a mobile app, which is then used to provide various sleep habit education, stimulus control, sleep restriction, cognitive techniques, and other behavioral interventions or restrictions for insomnia patients, along with training programs. For example, it constantly reminds insomnia patients that maintaining a fixed sleep schedule is important and that taking naps naturally leads to difficulty sleeping at night. The app instructs patients on when to get out of bed, when to lie down, and prohibits naps.

Jinhwan Lim, CEO of AimMed (pictured), explained, "Patients continuously receive essential information and treatment processes for insomnia treatment, which psychiatrists usually provide during face-to-face consultations, remotely in their daily lives. They can be repeatedly and continuously trained without visiting the hospital every week."

AimMed is also known to have made significant progress in developing a DTx for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). CEO Lim said, "Based on clinical trial results, we plan to obtain government approval and commercialize it with health insurance coverage through reimbursement. We believe that insomnia treatment will be more advantageous than ADHD treatment, so we expedited the development of Somzz. Prescribing DTx tailored to each patient's symptoms and ensuring patient adherence will be the core of DTx."