Exploring provider attitudes towards digital therapeutics for diabetes and depression

Digital therapeutics (DTxs) are AI-enabled FDA-regulated health apps prescribed to patients for a variety of conditions. DTxs use several methods including gamification, health education, and personalized insights to deliver targeted health behavior modification for users to self-manage a treatment or therapy, and or make necessary lifestyle changes. We investigate primary care provider attitudes (n = 224) towards adding DTxs to treatment plans for adult patients with diabetes or depression using experimental vignettes to examine differences in referral rates for a DTx versus in-person self-management program for patients with diabetes or depression of different ethnic and racial identities (Black, Latine, or White), ages (25 or 68), and sexes (male or female). In the findings of this pilot, we did not detect a difference in judgments of effectiveness of DTxs compared to in-person programs. When adjusting for all other variables, we found a statistically significant difference in belief that a digital therapeutic would be more effective than a self-management program for patients with diabetes compared to patients with depression (p < 0.05). In addition, providers overwhelmingly opted to let the patient decide the intervention, often emphasizing shared or patient-centered/driven care decision-making. Overall, these results suggest that, when informed that an in-person program and DTxs are equally effective, providers may consider them equally for their patients.