UPMC Enterprises, Redesign Health Launch New Startup for Chronic Pain Patients

UPMC Enterprises and Redesign Health launched a new startup on Monday that seeks to improve chronic pain management. The startup, named Glimmer Health, is partnering with primary care providers to help them treat ongoing pain in a way that is more personalized and holistic.

This announcement marks the second time that UPMC Enterprises — the innovation and commercialization arm of UPMC —  and Redesign — a company that creates healthcare startups — have jointly spun out a new venture. The first time was in 2022, when the partners launched Pip Care, a surgical app and healthcare coaching platform.

Their newest startup aims to tackle a hugely pervasive problem. One in four Americans suffer from chronic pain, pointed out Alissa Meade, Glimmer’s founder and CEO.

“Given the ubiquitousness of sufferers of chronic pain, not surprisingly, it results in what’s estimated to be over $600 billion in economic impact to the U.S. It’s a huge problem with a huge impact,” she explained. “Despite that, there are only so many specialists who specialize in helping individuals with pain. Specifically, there is only one of them for every approximately 20,000 individuals currently suffering with chronic pain. Just to give you a sense of comparison, there are about 350 individuals with heart disease for every cardiologist.”

Because of this conundrum, chronic pain management has largely become the responsibility of primary care physicians, Meade noted.

Glimmer is designed to be an extension of those primary care providers, helping these overburdened clinicians provide care that is comprehensive and multimodal, she stated. 

Once a primary care physician refers a patient to Glimmer’s platform, the patient undergoes a comprehensive pain assessment, which then informs their personalized care plan. The startup’s model was designed to mirror UPMC’s pain management clinics, added Dr. Ajay Wasan, vice chair for pain medicine at UPMC and medical director at Glimmer.

“Primary care physicians tell us that 15-20% of their visits each day involve some pain management, so we developed a system where we trained nurse practitioners who are pain specialists to be embedded in primary care and function independently. They would get referrals from primary care physicians, and they would see those patients in that primary care practice and then work closely with the primary care physician to improve the treatment of pain,” he explained.

Glimmer aims to extend this approach to primary care practices across the country. 

The company’s holistic approach to pain management involves providing specialty telehealth care, educational resources and behavioral health support. The platform also provides care coordination services by helping patients navigate any external care they might need and feeding data back to their primary care provider, Meade pointed out.

The startup employs a team of nurse practitioners, care managers and social workers — all of whom are trained in pain management.

In Meade’s eyes, Sword Health and Hinge Health are Glimmer’s main competitors. 

“They’ve really built their model on employers and then widened the aperture to payers. There are a number who have also gone direct-to-consumer. The fact that we are doing this physician-led sales motion is a differentiator, in particular from the largest players,” she remarked.

Ryan Schneiter, managing director at Redesign Health, said he is excited about the launch of Glimmer because it represents a unique approach that combines UPMC’s clinical expertise with innovative technology to empower primary care physicians. 

“This partnership demonstrates how combining clinical excellence with thoughtful design can create solutions that benefit both patients and providers while addressing a significant gap in our healthcare system,” he stated.

Photo: Thai Noipho, Getty Images