Welt Insomnia DTx 'SleepQ' Meets First Patient

Welt's digital therapeutic device (DTx) for insomnia, SleepQ, has begun to be prescribed.

Handok, which holds the domestic distribution rights for Welt and SleepQ, announced on the 13th that Professor Lee Eun's team from the Department of Psychiatry at Severance Hospital prescribed SleepQ to insomnia patients for the first time on the 12th. SleepQ was approved as an insomnia DTx by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April last year. Since its development, it has been given various names such as 'PillowRx,' 'Welt-i,' and 'SleepCure,' but the product name was finally confirmed as SleepQ. The two companies are currently preparing for SleepQ prescriptions at other domestic university hospitals besides Severance Hospital, and it is expected that full-scale prescriptions will be possible after August.

Patients prescribed SleepQ will receive treatment based on digital technology-implemented cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for six weeks. The device collects various patient data and analyzes sleep patterns to provide personalized treatment. Through this, patients can understand their sleep patterns and learn specific methods to improve insomnia symptoms.

CBT-I is a non-pharmacological treatment recommended as the first-line therapy for chronic insomnia in treatment guidelines from various countries including the United States, Europe, Australia, and Korea. It helps improve patients' behaviors and surrounding environments through sleep restriction therapy, stimulus control therapy, cognitive restructuring, relaxation therapy, and sleep hygiene education, enabling patients to gain the ability to regulate their own sleep conditions.

However, unlike medications that can be taken at home after prescription, CBT-I requires patients to visit medical institutions for treatment, which has been pointed out as a disadvantage due to time and space constraints. SleepQ overcomes these limitations of CBT-I, increasing patient participation and accessibility to treatment.

SleepQ demonstrated a significant improvement in sleep efficiency in clinical trials targeting insomnia patients. The group of insomnia patients treated with SleepQ showed about a 15% increase in sleep efficiency ratio compared to baseline at the 7-week mark. Sleep efficiency is an objective and quantitative indicator based on patients' sleep data.

Kim Young-jin, Chairman of Handok, said, “Innovation does not start with something entirely new but begins by identifying and solving areas that need improvement,” adding, “SleepQ provides improved benefits to medical staff and patients through digital technology and will contribute to increasing the currently very low participation rate in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.” Kang Sung-ji, CEO of Welt, also said, “The first patient prescription of SleepQ is a meaningful advancement,” and added, “We will continue to verify the benefits and necessity of SleepQ for insomnia treatment so that DTx can be helpful in medical settings and become a necessary treatment option.”