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Defining digital medicine

Nature Biotechnology volume 33, pages 456–461 (2015)Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 08 November 2016

This article has been updated

Digital medicine is poised to transform biomedical research, clinical practice and the commercial sector. Here we introduce a monthly column from R&D/venture creation firm PureTech tracking digital medicine's emergence.

These advances are prompting new approaches to research and medicine, but they are also raising questions and posing challenges for existing healthcare delivery systems. How will these technologies alter biomedical research approaches, what types of experimental questions will researchers now be able to ask and what types of training will be needed? Will the ability to digitize individual characteristics and communicate by mobile technology empower patients and enable the modification of disease-promoting behaviors; at the same time, will it threaten patient privacy? Will doctors be prescribing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared apps on a regular basis, not just to monitor and manage chronic disease but also to preempt acute disease episodes? Will the shift in the balance between disease treatment and early intervention have a broad economic impact on the healthcare system? How will the emergence of these new technologies reshape the healthcare industry and its underlying business models? What will be the defining characteristics of 'winning' products and companies?

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Figure 1: The types of physiological data points and the wearable sensors under development or on the market to monitor them.

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  • 13 October 2016

    In the version of this article initially published, PureTech was incorrectly credited for the illustration on p. 457. The Biosensing Body Image illustration is by Abby B. Marsh. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eric Elenko, Lindsay Underwood & Daphne Zohar are at PureTech, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Eric Elenko, Lindsay Underwood & Daphne Zohar

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  1. Eric Elenko
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Correspondence to Daphne Zohar.

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Competing interests

PureTech is actively forming companies in the digital medicine area, including Akili, which is mentioned in the article.

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Elenko, E., Underwood, L. & Zohar, D. Defining digital medicine. Nat Biotechnol 33, 456–461 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3222

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