Digital Health’s Next Target: Chronic Pain
As anyone familiar with the United State health system knows, it is a reactive system generally focused on treating or managing symptoms rather than taking a comprehensive approach to what it means to be “well”. Patients are often shepherded around to specialists, each responsible for managing one piece of the disease. The system leads to frustration and patients feeling like their body is being seen, but nobody is seeing them as a holistic human. Fortunately, digital health innovators like Dala’s Fahed Essa, are pioneering a new approach to care. His app is centered on patient empathy and understanding, ensuring that the human element is prioritized.
Specifically, his app Dala uses-evidence based methods and a multivitamin supplement subscription to treat patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, crest and ankylosing spondylosis. With over 75 million adult patients in the US, autoimmune diseases are prime for disruption both from the size of the patient population and the short fallings of traditional medicine.
Autoimmune patients have a particularly difficult emotional journey and relationships with the disease. They often feel a sense of betrayal given that their body is attacking itself. They also struggle to communicate the magnitude of their pain to friends and family members who cannot see an outward expression of the disease. Furthermore, women in their childbearing age are often hesitant to become mothers for a variety of reasons including the fear of dropping their baby and the requirement to pause treatment while pregnant. Unfortunately, solely relying on traditional medicine is proving to be ineffective. In fact, some reports estimate that 66 patients suffer from depression. Thus, demonstrating a need for complementary solutions.
To take a more holistic look at the patient, Dala partners with chronic pain specialists, physical therapists, mindfulness experts and nutritionists to provide a program that complements traditional therapy. Essa’s views and values are echoed in his strategy: he is a molecular biologist that understands the importance of scientific innovation but also recently graduated from the MBA/MPH program at UC Berkeley providing him with a systems perspective on the industry. As a result, his strategy merges population health efforts with traditional medicine, understanding that the two are complementary.
The program is rooted in the patient journey and finding ways to incorporate care in patients’ daily lives, outside the walls of hospitals and doctor’s offices. As Essa states “this is a chronic condition; what we can do rather than pump these patients with more medications, is to give them the tools they need to address the difficulties in their lives”. The mission is quite simple: he listens to patients and cares for them holistically. This attitude is in stark contrast to traditional patient-provider relationships and the historical attitude of the pharmaceutical industry, which pushes treatment to patients rather than pulling them into the discussion.
Dala is about meeting patients where they are. In the words of Essa “We do not tell patient where to start, they tell us where they feel they are behind in their healing process, and we start there”. The app leverages the benefits of modern medicine while also addressing nutrition, exercise and mental health to ensure patients are treated as humans, not as hosts of organs.
Dala is part of the revolution to holistic, patient centered chronic pain management; an area full of promise and opportunity. Essa’s app can change the lives of patients and fundamentally alter the treatment landscape, pushing the bounds of healthcare into the next decade.
