helping to ease the burden of complex IVF treatment plan
In the United States, women suffering from infertility underwent 190,000 cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 2014. The goal of an IVF cycle is a healthy baby, but in order to do this, patients and their partners have to manage a complex program of medications when dosage and time of administration can be critical. Not having the right medication at the right time can be the difference between a successful pregnancy or a failed— and expensive—in vitro cycle.
University of Michigan’s Michael Lanham, M.D., has developed a dynamic calendar and medication manager for fertility patients called OnTrack, a program that provides patients with better control over their fertility medication supply and the entire IVF process. The software prompts patients to refill medications and provides clinics with the information they need to help patients who might be at risk for running out of medication or making some other medication error.
Due to the complexity of the treatment and because medications are expensive and typically ordered by patients incrementally to reduce waste, medication errors—including wrong doses and running out of medication—affect between 3-15% of patients. Without insurance coverage, each cycle can cost between $15,000 and $25,000 total for medications and procedures. With OnTrack, patients won’t have to worry about their actions during a treatment cycle negatively affecting the outcome.
Significant Need
IVF patients have to individually manage the process of medication inventory, administration, and refills. Due to the complexity of the treatment, medication errors affect between 3-15% of patients.
Compelling Science
The program creates a checklist, allowing clinic staff to input which IVF medications to expect and patients to input their current inventory and name of pharmacy. The OnTrack software will allow patients to see when and how they can pick their upcoming medications and provide alerts on when they’re running low.
Competitive Advantage
OnTrack focuses on the inventory of medications and provides flexibility with multiple and changing doses, routes and medication combinations in IVF cycles, warning patients about an impending lack of medication before it happens. Current apps do not have the capability to warn patients about upcoming medication refill needs based on doses that can change daily.
Overall Commercialization
- Intellectual Property: Product and associated software will be be copyrighted
- Commercialization Strategy: Licensed to fertility clinics or directly to patients
- Regulatory Pathway: No FDA approval or oversight required
- Product Launch Strategy: OnTrack
Milestones
- Start feature development, recruiting U-M patients for research study
- Clinic-facing features complete development
- Recruit 50 more U-M subjects and 12 non-U-M patients for study
- Conduct first mid-study evaluation
- Additional 50 U-M patients recruited with 24 from outside clinics
- Pursue license of the software from U-M and pursue additional funding
- Transition agreement with early adopters from research collaborators to customers
