If you’re reading this, you probably live with some type of chronic pain or condition, or work with those who do.
You may have experienced how chronic conditions create or exacerbate pain: physical pain, or psychological pain (anxiety, depression, stress etc.) or even a social one.
You may have thought to yourself,
"Pain sucks. Why is pain management so hard?”
We asked ourselves that exact same question.
If there are over 100 million Americans with chronic pain, more than cancer, diabetes, and heart disease combined, why is pain management so limited? So often ineffective? So under-researched and supported?
We worked with patients and doctors to answer this and it boils down to two main points.
#1: pain is often misunderstood.
People, even many doctors, think of chronic pain as just physical pain. But as you probably know from just plain ol’ experience, it’s not.
Pain is a bio-psycho-social disease.
Anxiety and depression are some of the most common symptoms of chronic pain. Pain encompasses physical pain, psychological pain, and even social isolation. Effective pain management needs to address all three. But most pain management tools, medication, or procedures only address one or the other.
#2: pain management is inaccessible.
Pain medication is now heavily regulated. Pain clinics have a minimum wait time of six months to a year for admittance and they require you to travel to a clinic. Traveling for pain management is a huge ask when even getting out of bed is tough!
So we built Flowly
Along with doctors and researchers at UPMC, USC, Duke, and the NIH we wanted to build a platform that addresses the bio, psycho, and social aspects of chronic pain. Turn physical pain into physical comfort, anxiety into relaxation, social isolation into community.
And then we wanted to make Flowly accessible from the comfort of your home. We wanted something you could do in bed, on your couch, or even for some folks, pulled over on the side of the road when they have a flare-up.
So we developed a mobile platform with a portable Kit that combines Virtual Reality and biofeedback training to teach you how to manage your body and mind on a daily basis. And we give you a community to support you along the way.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of what we’re about, and what we stand for. But I know that not everyone can pay out of pocket for Flowly right now. That’s why I want to reassure you we are working on getting this to be reimbursable. We’re a small team, so we appreciate your patience, but together, we’ll get there.
“Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.“
- Celine, Flowly CEO and Co-founder