A Giant Step for Integrated Digital Health Care
Last week we announced the addition of Upright to the DarioHealth family of digital health solutions. Adding Upright’s expertise in treating and preventing musculoskeletal (MSK) issues has greatly expanded DarioHealth’s ability to provide more fully integrated care for people with chronic conditions.
MSK Issues Place Outsized Stress on the Healthcare System
On their own, musculoskeletal conditions impact the lives of half the U.S. adult population and result in $237 billion a year in direct treatment costs alone, according to a 2017 KFF review of data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The indirect costs—including absenteeism and presenteeism—are even higher, and are compounded by the fact that MSK disorders often interfere with other chronic conditions. For example, most people with diabetes need to increase their physical activity but chronic pain and other kinds of orthopedic issues can impair their ability to do so.
Reducing the Stress Through Integrated Care
Because MSK conditions usually do not occur in isolation, solutions need to be readily available as part of a comprehensive, integrated care plan. And because engagement in the management of chronic conditions is often poor, these solutions need to be personalized to drive continued use.
These are the main reasons why DarioHealth’s acquisition of Upright is a natural fit. DarioHealth already delivers effective, high-engagement solutions in diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Our AI-driven, adaptive personalization and emphasis on behavior change in chronic conditions can now be extended to improve MSK health and reduce associated costs related to surgeries, imaging, specialist visits, opioid use, and inpatient care.
Upright stood out from other MSK solutions because the company, just like DarioHealth, began in the direct-to-consumer space and solved the hardest problem first—helping people change behaviors to improve health. Traditional approaches to pain lean heavily on prescription medications and specialty care, including procedures. The fundamental challenges to functional health occur between care visits, and overcoming them requires ongoing engagement and lasting behavior change.
The founder of Upright started the company to help his mother who was suffering from chronic back pain. She was the first of hundreds of thousands of people who have benefited from this innovative solution, which facilitates continuous engagement throughout the day, unlike traditional intermittent approaches. With Upright, MSK care is supported in the places where life is lived, not just at the occasional doctor visit or physical therapy session.
A Comprehensive Vision for Engaged Digital Health Care
DarioHealth is committed making the right thing to do the easy thing to do by applying proven approaches to enduring behavior change to a broad range of conditions. The Upright acquisition is a major step forward.
Multi-condition solutions that fail to engage are no better than single condition solutions that fail to engage, because they aren’t solving the real problem of sustained behavior change. Too many solutions that have gained value in the marketplace have shown that they can change employer or health plan behavior, but not necessarily the end user behavior where it really matters.
Solutions like DarioHealth and Upright work so well because direct-to-consumer DNA ensures a user experience that engages by design. The benefits of this experience are reflected in the mutually impressive customer satisfaction and retention rates of the two companies, as well as in the clinical studies that show dramatic health improvements that sustain over time.
The level of engagement that DarioHealth and Upright are achieving is missing from the B2B market and today we are in a stronger position to change that. By combining forces with Upright, we see a new opportunity for our employer and health plan partners to realize proven cost savings while improving the health of their members in a meaningful and measurable way.