Icompanion App Enables Patients to Track Symptoms, Understand MRI Scans

Icometrix launched a new digital platform, icompanion, to help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) track their disease and understand MRI scans.

The platform, currently available in English, French, German, and Dutch,  consists of a phone app for patients and a web-based dashboard to help clinicians track patients and make treatment decisions.

“Offering care based on data and objective measures is crucial to move towards more personalized and precise medicine for people with neurological disorders,” Wim Van Hecke, CEO of icometrix, said in a press release.

“Through icompanion, the gap between doctor visits is bridged with clinically meaningful and validated data. The seamless availability of the icompanion data to the health care provider is very important in this context,” Van Hecke said.

The icompanion app provides an interface for people with MS to track their symptoms, treatments, and visits with clinicians. With day-to-day symptom-tracking and standardized questionnaires, the app allows people with MS to record events that happen between visits to the clinic, which might otherwise go unrecognized.

“As a neurologist, you see a patient only a couple of times a year and we know that a lot of valuable information is lost in-between. To make informed clinical and treatment decisions, it is important to have a complete picture of how a patient is doing,” said Helmut Butzkeuven, PhD, a neurologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who specializes in MS.

“Medical devices such as icompanion can greatly help in democratizing care, since today, patient care depends on where you live and who cares for you,” added Butzkeuven, who also is director of the global MS registry MSBase.

In addition to day-to-day tracking, icompanion allows users to upload their MRI scans onto the platform, which then provides users with educational information about the meaning and quality of these scans.

“Icompanion helps me keep track of my symptoms,” said Roberto Paolella, who has been living with MS for 15 years.

“Even if they seem insignificant, they are crucial in helping me communicate with my physician and prepare my visits. I think it’s great that by using icompanion, my data can also support researchers in their fight against multiple sclerosis. To win this battle we need everyone’s help, and together we are stronger,” Paolella said. 

The app is available at Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.