E211: Precision Monitoring: How Digital Biomarkers Are Changing Medicine

Digital biomarkers are turning everyday movement into clinically useful data, giving doctors a clearer picture of what’s happening between appointments, and giving pharma new ways to measure drug impact earlier and more precisely. In this episode, Dr Andree Bates interviews Dr Quique Llaudet, CEO and co-founder of Ephion Health, about precision monitoring and how AI-driven mobility analysis is changing both clinical care and drug development.

Quique shares his journey from academic research into entrepreneurship, driven by a desire to turn science into real products that help patients. Ephion Health grew out of early work with paediatric hospitals in Barcelona, where sensor technology used in rehabilitation and exoskeleton projects revealed a bigger opportunity: objective, high-sensitivity gait and movement analysis that can detect disease signatures and track progression over time.

The conversation breaks down what a digital biomarker actually is: a measurable signal of health captured via connected devices and analysed with digital methods. Ephion’s platform integrates multiple validated, off-the-shelf sensors to capture rich movement data in a short test, replacing blunt measures like the six-minute walk test with something both more sensitive and less stressful for patients. The system then combines key parameters into a single composite score to track progression and treatment response.

Quique also tackles the “black box” concern head on. He explains how their models are developed alongside clinicians, with clinical relevance checked throughout, and how doctors can inspect the underlying parameters behind the biomarker score in a dashboard. For rare diseases with limited data, he highlights deep collaboration with clinicians and patient associations, and the use of synthetic data to support modelling and testing.

Finally, Quique outlines the economics: reducing specialist assessment time, enabling more frequent remote monitoring, supporting earlier treatment adjustments, and helping pharma generate evidence in real-world settings. The long-term vision is continuous monitoring that helps clinicians act earlier, plus AI-assisted diagnosis and eventually prevention.

Topics Covered

What digital biomarkers are and how they differ from traditional biomarkers

Turning mobility data into clinically meaningful signals

Multi-sensor monitoring: IMUs, pressure insoles, and EMG

Why short tests can beat the six-minute walk test

Composite biomarker scoring and tracking treatment response

AI patterns clinicians may sense but cannot quantify

Explainability and building models “hand in hand” with doctors

Data challenges in rare disease and the role of patient associations

Synthetic data for modelling and validation

Economic impact: time savings, remote monitoring, and better treatment adjustment

Pharma use cases: real-world evidence and earlier efficacy signals in trials

About the PodcastAI For Pharma Growth is the podcast from pioneering Pharma Artificial Intelligence entrepreneur Dr Andree Bates, created to help pharma, biotech and healthcare organisations understand how AI-based technologies can save time, grow brands, and improve company results.

This show blends deep sector experience with practical conversations that demystify AI for biopharma leaders, from start-up biotech right through to Big Pharma. Each episode features experts building AI-powered tools that are driving real-world results across discovery, R&D, clinical trials, medical affairs, market access, regulatory, insights, sales, marketing, and more.

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