In the United States alone, around 38 million people experience migraines, a neurological disorder affecting 1 billion worldwide. Yet so far, the problem is under-researched. “Migraine [headaches] are one of those under-recognized diseases that are incredibly prevalent,” says Chris Cardinal, co-founder of St. Louis-based mobile health tech company Welltodo.
And treating migraines can be expensive. Migraine headaches are estimated to cost up to $36 billion every year, according to the Migraine Research Foundation.
These are just a few of the problems that Cardinal hopes to solve with the mobile app Migraine Coach, which aims to help users manage migraine pain by changing their daily lives.
Years ago, Cardinal and James Console joined a book club that became a casual think-tank, where they discovered some correlations between migraines and weather. To exlpore their hunch, they pulled data from Twitter and found more evidence. Then they began investigating other triggers of migraines. Welltodo was born, and with it, Migraine Coach.
Photo courtesy of Welltodo
Chris Cardinal, Welltodo co-founder, hopes to expand Migraine Coach's model to help individuals decrease the negative effects of other diseases.
Migraine Coach is a “digital therapeutic,” an app that focuses on helping people. It creates a “migraine forecast,” essentially a predictor, based on cues and data, of how likely its user is to have a migraine. Migraine Coach pulls information from Fitbits, Apple Watches, and other apps, rather than prompting users to input loads of data. “We’re doing our best to eliminate the need for the user to put in the information,” says Cardinal.
Then, the artificial intelligence gives the user advice to help decrease the frequency of migraines. Based on internal studies, Welltodo found that about half of its active users receive a 50 percent reduction in frequency after eight months’ use.
All users saw a 25 percent decrease in frequency of disabling migraines. In terms of lost work, “migraine [headache]s are comparable to dementia or active psychosis,” Cardinal says. People miss work, go to doctors; according to recent studies, migraines are consistently among the top five reasons for emergency department visits. “When you’re able to help people manage the disability that it’s causing, that’s a huge deal."
And hopefully, says Cardinal, helping individuals lessen pain and disability can have a positive impact for companies, as well. Cardinal estimates there’s a potential of annual savings of $1,400 per migraine-suffering employee from using Migraine Coach. “There is something working here,” Cardinal says.
Now, Welltodo is working with Dr. William Renthal of Harvard Medical School to back up internal findings with hard science. Renthal is conducting research in which Welltodo “works with clinical researchers to better understand migraine and ways to help patients through the app.” They can’t release more information yet, but Cardinal says that if all goes well, they may apply for National Institutes of Health grants to further the research.
Eventually, he hopes to expand Migraine Coach’s model to help treat other diseases. “Our ultimate goal is to help people feel better and live more happy, active lives,” Cardinal says.
