Health IT, Startups, Patient Engagement

Digital health startup Hinge Health casts an eye to US to help employees with lower back pain

Can a London-based digital health startup successfully deliver an employer wellness program to help U.S. employees recover from lower back pain and other musculoskeletal problems?

The strong work ethic associated with the U.S., specifically the tendancy to treat sick days and vacation days as one and the same also means that when people can’t work due to health problems, companies have to deal with lost productivity. In an effort to address the poor delivery of care for musculoskeletal disorders, London-based startup Hinge Health has targeted large U.S. employers with a 16-week digital health program aimed at helping employees recuperate from musculoskeletal problems such as lower back, knee, shoulder and neck pain.

The company sees an opportunity to fix what it views as a broken delivery problem. The company notes that more than half of employees suffer from back, knee shoulder or neck pain, which can cost employers $10,000 per employee per year. Although best practice for treating these conditions isn’t the issue, only a relatively small portion of people actually receive it.

In a phone interview with MedCity News, Hinge Health co-founder Daniel Perez said it saw a way to use technology to increase compliance with care plans and help employers reduce absenteeism and health costs.

The company is pretty ambitious in its approach and developed a team of researchers from Oxford, Cambridge and London with backgrounds in medicine, behavioral health, bioengineering, design, and software.

“We developed two wearable bands with motion sensors that guide participants through clinically validated stretching and strengthening regimes,” Perez said in an emailed statement. “Reps are automatically tracked, angles recorded, and participants can see their joint moving live on screen.”

Another factor in its program is weight management. It seeks to help each participant cut their weight from 5 percent to 10 percent. Peer support is also part of its program. Each participant has a health coach assigned to them who helps set goals and monitor progress. They are also placed in groups of 12-18 people where they have collective team goals for activity and weight loss, can support each other, and stay accountable.

“We’ve found that the camaraderie and accountability has been really powerful,” Perez said.

He noted that it has already done a pilot of the program in Oxford and London. So far it has secured seed funding but plans to raise a Series A for a more aggressive expansion plan.

The thing that seems to be missing though is how to reduce the inevitable pushback. Pain and depression present some challenging obstacles for participation. Employer wellness program participation has always been something of a challenge in the U.S., and increasingly there has been resistance especially where chronic conditions are involved.

Still if less or no pain is the outcome, that may prove to be a stronger motivation for participation than simply being healthier. But a lingering question for Hinge Health remains: Can there be common ground in the employer wellness space between two countries separated by a common language?

Photo: Flickr user Steven Depolo

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