“You don’t feel so alone when you know you’re not the only one struggling with steroid side effects.”
More than 50 million people are on long-term glucocorticoid treatment and more than 40% of the cost of treating those patients is related to their side effects.[1,2]
Health systems are under immense pressure to deliver better patient outcomes and reduce costs. And while digital transformation is seen as a key pillar to support these objectives, more than 75% of healthcare execs say investment may be falling short.[3]
Though the financial costs are staggering, the human costs to patients are heartbreaking - and sadly, all too often life-changing and life-limiting.
Take Anita, for example. Despite knowing she needed to keep on top of her weight, blood pressure and supplements to support her bone density, she didn’t know her eyesight could be damaged by steroids until it was too late, and glaucoma seriously damaged the eyesight in her left eye.
Clinicians find themselves in the middle without the time to properly consent patients or educate them on all the side effects of steroids. This makes shared decision-making around steroid treatment especially challenging.
Sam is here to change this dilemma
Short for “Steroids and Me,” Sam is a collaboration among academic physicians, patients, patient advocacy groups and industry leaders to develop a patient-focused program to optimize steroid use.
Sam’s development plan was divided into three phases:
- A search for patient-focused resources
- A patient and clinician needs assessment
- Development of a digital companion
Despite the dozens of steroid-toxicities that have been recognized, documented and catalogued in the medical literature over the past several decades, there has been no curated resource to help patients understand and manage their own health in the face of steroids.
The needs assessment consisted of international roundtables of clinicians, patient advocacy group leaders and industry representatives, as well as discussions with patients that identified major unmet needs. Critically, many patients felt alone dealing with steroid-toxicity, under-informed, and many had suffered irreversible damage that could have been prevented.
The development phase consisted of building a digital companion, featuring educational content derived from interviews with more than a dozen leading international clinicians. With a commitment to keep patients at the heart of the endeavor, the Sam development team engaged a 34-member patient panel in one-on-one meetings for user testing and patient journey validation.
Meet Sam
Sam was unveiled at EULAR 2024 in Vienna, Austria, and met with great enthusiasm. The educational information on steroid-toxicity that has been gathered over the years now belongs to those who need it most. With Sam, patients like Anita have information and agency to participate in decisions about their treatment.
“Sam is the only platform designed to educate and equip steroid-treated patients across all inflammatory diseases. We are delighted with the welcome that Sam received at EULAR, and look forward to its worldwide release on June 27th,” said Martha Stone, CEO of Steritas.
“We are deeply grateful for the enthusiasm and expertise of those world-recognized medical experts who have donated their time to educate steroid-treated users with both written and video teaching modules in Sam. We look forward to introducing the world to Sam.”
We're delighted to introduce you to Sam
References
- Fardet L, Petersen I, Nazareth I. Prevalence of long-term oral glucocorticoid prescriptions in the UK over the past 20 years. Rheumatol Oxf Engl. 2011;50:1982–1990.
- Laurence Fardet, MD, PhD, Irene Petersen, PhD, and Irwin Nazareth, MD, PhD Monitoring of Patients on Long-Term Glucocorticoid Therapy- A Population-Based Cohort Study. Medicine. Volume 94, Number 15, April 2011.
- Digital transformation: Health systems’ investment priorities, McKinsey & Company, June 7, 2024, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/digital-transformation-health-systems-investment-priorities