Helping accelerate the diagnosis of chronic rheumatic disorders

Earlier diagnosis of chronic inflammatory conditions has the potential to impact tens of thousands of lives worldwide.

That’s why Ada Health and Novartis collaborated to raise awareness and reduce diagnostic delays for optimal treatment and management of these diseases.

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  • 14 yearsaverage to diagnosis for AxSpA in the US

  • 400,000people have used Ada on Novartis' sites

  • 31%show symptoms in line with PsA or AxSpA

Years to get a correct diagnosis

Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) and Axial Spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) are two rheumatological conditions that affect millions of people. Patients suffering from these chronic conditions sometimes wait over a decade before an appropriate diagnosis leads to effective treatment.

Average delays to diagnosis can vary. The estimates for the mean time lag from the onset of symptoms to a correct AxSpA diagnosis in the United States is 14 years.1

Improving access to information

Several condition-focused websites now support people who suspect that they may have an inflammatory disease to better understand their symptoms and condition by offering Ada’s clinically validated AI-powered symptom assessment to users in Germany, Austria, Canada, France, and Italy. 

Users can complete an Ada assessment at any time of day and receive an assessment report with several possible conditions based on their responses, ranked in order of probability based on the patient's answers.

The post-assessment webpage also links to relevant condition information and resources, sometimes including details about local specialists. Users may then choose to share the report with further details about their symptoms with their care provider.

The engagement goes further in Canada, where the user may also opt for a telemedicine consultation with an appropriate primary care physician and connect directly after the assessment.

Meeting quality expectations

Ada’s AI algorithms constantly learn and are improved. Together, clinicians from Ada, along with external specialists, optimized Ada’s PsA and AxSpA medical knowledge and disease models to further improve the accuracy of Ada’s advice.

As with any user-facing digital health proposition, it is critical that the technology meets gold standards and requirements. Ada supports quality expectations and is classified as a Class IIa-regulated medical device, exemplifying Ada’s approaches to quality management, medical safety and compliance, and ‘security by design.’ 

The collaboration is all about improving patients’ lives. This enabled partners to join and address bottlenecks, regulatory hurdles, and technical challenges in terms of the wider goal. This shared sense of purpose is the basic ingredient of the ongoing success.

What’s next?

Supporting online requests for more information about the symptoms of inflammatory conditions such as PsA and AxSpA will raise awareness and drive recognition of these uncommon conditions that affect 0.1%2 and 0.7%3 of the global population, respectively.

Reducing the time it takes to diagnose these conditions, and educating patients on potential treatment options to discuss with their healthcare providers contributes to better overall outcomes.

Ada is committed to supporting patient engagement to reduce the time to diagnosis and treatment. We partner with leading life science leaders to improve patients' lives.

  1. Danve, A & Deodhar, A. (2019) Axial spondyloarthritis in the USA: Diagnostic challenges and missed opportunities. Clinical Rheumatology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-018-4397-3

  2. Lembke, S. Macfarlane, G. & Jones, G. (2024). .The worldwide prevalence of psoriatic arthritis—a systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatology. https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keae198

  3. Axial Spondyloarthritis International Federation (2024). The Burden of Axial Spondyloarthritis: A global patient perspective. https://asif.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ASIF-IMAS-global-report-FINAL-Jan-2024-4.pdf