Innovative digital healthcare partnership to reduce back pain

According to the World Health Organisation and the Office for National Statistics, back pain is a major cause of disability worldwide. It is the leading cause of work absence globally and accounts for almost 31 million days of work lost costing the UK economy £14bn a year. The healthcare cost in Sweden for these patients is SEK 3 billion and the total cost, including sick leave, is SEK 25 billion. 

Min Doktor physicians will prescribe the Kaia back pain app to patients suffering from repeat and/or chronic back pain. Each patient will be supported by Min Doktor physiotherapists throughout.

The Kaia app uses a multidisciplinary, mind-body digital approach to treat back pain, including education, physiotherapy and meditation. The treatment was developed with physiotherapists, pain management physicians, orthopaedic surgeons and clinical psychologists. Using AI, the app tailors treatment programmes for each user from over 120 exercises. Motion tracking technology ensures that the exercises are performed correctly via a smartphone, without the need for additional hardware. This empowers individuals to take control, and self-manage their condition from the comfort of their home.

Kaia Health is a member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, an association of international manufacturers for digital therapeutic products that meet excellence in high quality standards. The company recently launched the world’s first AI fitness app which uses patent pending motion-tracking technology to turn your smartphone into a personal trainer. 

Magnus Nyhlén, founder of Min Doktor, said: “Traditional healthcare is broken. Patients with back pain have to wait several weeks or months for a doctor’s appointment, only to be prescribed painkillers or physiotherapy until the pain returns. Our digital healthcare approach with Kaia Health will reboot the interaction between patients and physiotherapists and increase access to effective back pain treatment.”

Konstantin Mehl, Founder & CEO of Kaia Health, added: “The Min Doktor partnership demonstrates why we need to rethink how we treat diseases, and make digital self-management a more realistic part of treatment. By digitising back pain therapy, we can democratise access to effective, non-pharmacological, treatment which can be administered quickly and conveniently from the comfort of a patient’s home.”

The Kaia app is available on iOS and Android, and can be downloaded via GooglePlay and AppStore.