LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — Digital health company Oto and clinical trial start-up Lindus Health have unveiled a fully remote, digital trial aimed at expanding patient access to tinnitus therapy. Tinnitus, often characterized as “ringing in the ears,” can severely impact daily life, leading to issues such as insomnia and depression.
In the UK, an estimated 6 million people, roughly 15% of the population, contend with persistent tinnitus, which currently has no known cure.
“This trial represents a significant milestone for Oto, allowing us to be the first to conduct this groundbreaking tinnitus research. We hope this will provide the scientific backing to accelerate our mission of giving people their lives back from tinnitus.”
—Edmund Farrar, CEO at Oto
Tinnitus Trial
Oto’s evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program offers digital access to tinnitus management, striving to alleviate self-reported distress and severity. In this study, 198 participants across the UK will engage in a fully remote digital trial, evaluating Oto’s smartphone-based tinnitus management program against therapist-delivered CBT in terms of self-reported tinnitus severity improvement among adults.
“This clinical trial is really exciting as we are testing an entirely remotely delivered therapy that would have little limit on expansion to enable far more patients to be treated, whilst still maintaining much of the personalisation of therapy that tinnitus patients benefit from.”
—Mr Matthew Smith, Consultant ENT surgeon in Cambridge and Chief Investigator
Lindus Health manages all aspects of the trial, including protocol development, data collection, recruitment, and monitoring.
“As tinnitus continues to be an issue blighting around 15% of the UK population – and with no single cure in sight – this trial will be fundamental in helping those who suffer to better manage their symptoms.,” Michael Young, Co-Founder of Lindus Health, commented. “With the ability to offer a fully-remote trial, we’re helping people from all over the UK to gain access to life-changing coaching – with our process delivering clinical trials three times faster than the industry standard”.
If Oto’s tinnitus management program demonstrates similar effectiveness to traditional one-on-one therapy, it would help expand access to patient-focused, cost effective care for millions of experiencing tinnitus.
Learn more about the DEFINE trial here
About Lindus Health
Lindus Health is a London-based start-up, launched in 2021, that runs clinical trials three times faster than the old-fashioned industry standard – bringing ground-breaking treatments to patients more quickly.
Clinical trials are the biggest bottleneck to advances in healthcare and by removing this constraint they aim to improve health for everyone. Lindus does this by using its pioneering industry-first platform that can manage a trial from start to finish.
Lindus Health has to date delivered more than 80 trials across the UK, US and Europe to tackle a range of conditions including diabetes, asthma, acne, social anxiety, major depressive disorder, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome and insomnia.
The company was named after James Lind, who pioneered the first clinical trial and treatment for scurvy, and co-founded by Michael Young, a former No 10 Special Adviser on Life Sciences, and Meri Beckwith, a former Venture Capitalist focused on biotech.
The company has raised $24.5m from investors including Peter Thiel, CREANDUM, Firstminute Capital, Presight Capital, Seedcamp, Hambro Perks, Amino Collective and Calm/Storm.
About Oto
Oto is a UK-based startup that has been revolutionising the way people manage tinnitus through personalised, expert-built digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) programs. The app has already helped thousands of people forget about their tinnitus, with over 86% of users reporting they ‘feel better’ within one month.
Source: Lindus Health
