1 Million Hours of Data by Chronic Pain Patients Using Quell

NeuroMetrix is marking passage of a major milestone: over 1 million hours of therapy and health data pertaining to its Quell wearable intensive nerve stimulation therapeutic technology has been uploaded to the Quell Health Cloud as of Aug. 1. Quell is engineered to help manage moderate to severe chronic pain, such as low back pain, nerve pain, arthritic pain, and fibromyalgia, and can be purchased without a medical prescription.

Quell technology is FDA cleared for 24/7 use, and Quell’s lightweight, slim design is discreet enough to wear under clothes and while on-the-go. Quell users can control and customize therapy intensity and timing, and track eight dimensions of sleep and therapy trends, directly from an Apple iOS or Android smartphone or tablet app via Bluetooth wireless technology. The app also records up to two years of therapy and sleep history data at intervals from one day to three months (the latter feature is currently iOS only, but expected for Android later this year), providing feedback about therapy utilization, sleep characteristics and activity levels.

Accelerometers in portable devices running the Quell apps assist Quell in automatically adjusting therapy levels to meet the user’s current needs. At its default setting, Quell will automatically deliver therapy sessions every other hour, and is used six hours a day, on average. NeuroMetrix says Quell’s lithium ion rechargeable battery will typically provide between 30 and 40 hours of therapy between charges.
NeuroMetrix, which was founded in 1996 as a spinoff from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, has also announced that it has entered into a partnership with Advantage Healthcare, a marketing and supply chain company, and will explore retail expansion plans with other executives at the NCADS Total Store Expo (TSE), Aug. 6-9 in Boston.

“NACDS Total Store Expo is the drug store industry’s largest annual meeting,” says Clark Brown, chief operating officer of Advantage Healthcare. “We are looking forward to working with NeuroMetrix to further expand Quell distribution and make it available to consumers through retailers across the US.”

Data collected by the Quell iOS and Android apps is backed up to the Quell Health Cloud. A sampling of insights drawn from analysis of this now million-hour database include:

• It’s widely accepted that better sleep means lesser pain experience. Most people with chronic pain have low-quality sleep, and 71% of Quell owners, who typically sleep an average of 6.6 hours per night, have used their device while sleeping, with about 38% of Quell therapy delivered between the hours of 8 pm and 8 am. Nearly 40% of Quell users average less than six hours of sleep, and about 27% have a high frequency of sleep disruptive periodic leg movements, which are also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

• People with chronic pain often have reduced levels of activity, which increases pain and elevates risk of obesity and heart disease. Users who wear Quell for at least four daytime hours walk an average of 34 minutes daily with their device.

“One million hours of therapy data uploaded to the Quell Health Cloud is an important milestone in our effort to develop Quell as a digital health intervention for chronic pain. The Quell Health Cloud, already one of the largest chronic pain databases in the world, is growing rapidly as our customers create accounts to realize its value in helping them manage their chronic pain,” said Shai N. Gozani, MD, PhD, founder, president and chief executive officer of NeuroMetrix, in a press release. “We have only started mining the data. We believe that the Quell Health Cloud will eventually provide our customers with real-time guidance to help optimize their Quell therapy and more generally to reduce their chronic pain.”