Linkcare will provide Activity Tracking and eCRF data management to PROactive

The aim of PROactive is to develop new tools that will enable patients, their doctors and clinical researchers to accurately assess the improvement or deterioration of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). 

COPD is a treatable and preventable disease of the lungs which affects an increasing number of Europeans. Patients usually experience a progressive decline in their condition, they may get easily short of breath, experience leg fatigue and are often forced to reduce their physical activity and their normal way of life.

There are currently no valid tests that measure the impact of the disease on physical activity levels and related dimensions (e.g. the symptoms experienced during physical activity). Hence, accurate mapping of the progression or improvement of the disease in this important patient related domain is difficult. The commonly used lung function tests for COPD provide only limited information on the progression of the disease and on the symptoms and quality of life experienced by patients. Exercise tests, on the other hand are more an assessment of the capacity of the patient, rather than of the problems of patients in daily life.

The PROactive consortium will use Linkcare's Patient Reported Outcome-tools that detect small, but clinically relevant changes in physical activity and its related symptoms and as such, it will offer results more relevant to patients and doctors. A user friendly electronic tool will help patients to assess on a day-to-day basis the activities in which they engage and the symptoms associated to these activities. The second tool will be used during hospital visits to assess the patients' physical activity and experience of the disease. To verify the usefulness of the tools, they will be tested in clinical trials with more than 600 COPD patients.  The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the American Food and Drug Administration will be closely involved in the developments.

The Linkcare tool will give doctors, nurses and other health care providers unique information on the effect of treatment on their patients in a domain of immediate relevance to their patients. Furthermore, the tests will be useful to test the effect of new COPD treatments in clinical trials. The PROactive project also includes the dissemination of the new tools and the training of scientists and hospital staff that will use the tools. The PROactive scientists believe that their work will pave the way for similar tools in other chronic diseases, such as congestive heart failure.