Algorithmic-Based Web Site Links to CreakyJoints to Provide Users with a Suite of Disease Assessment Tools and Educational Resources
UPPER NYACK, NY (October 23, 2019) – Today, CreakyJoints®, a Global Healthy Living Foundation® (GHLF) patient community, announced the relaunch of PainSpot.org. PainSpot.org is an innovative algorithmic-based web site featuring an interactive, easy-to-use pain assessment tool. PainSpot was designed to provide musculoskeletal disease or injured patients with individualized insight into the cause of their pain.
Google reports that every month there are nearly 250,000 searches for lower back pain, 100,000 searches for neck pain, and 135,000 searches for shoulder pain. In 2018, PainSpot was acquired by GHLF and CreakyJoints to capitalize on this search volume and connect with people looking for information on their pain. In addition to refreshing the website interface, PainSpot now connects site users with actionable results by providing them with a complete suite of educational resources and linking them to digital support services.
“We know the health care system can be complicated and frustrating, especially when you’re in pain and can’t figure out what’s wrong,” said Seth Ginsberg, president and co-founder of CreakyJoints, Global Healthy Living Foundation’s arthritis community. “While PainSpot is not a diagnostic tool — it’s not meant to tell you what’s wrong – based on your answers to specific clinical questions about the nature of your pain, it suggests possible conditions that may be responsible for your symptoms and that you should discuss with your doctor. PainSpot will help people with pain have more productive conversations with their healthcare team.”
“We’ve integrated PainSpot into our family of educational resources for people living with chronic disease,” added Louis Tharp, executive director and co-founder of CreakyJoints and the Global Healthy Living Foundation. “In the future, we will utilize our patient-centered user experience, accessibility, and educational capacities to increase site volume and algorithm accuracy, build stronger linkages between the users and healthcare providers or health system ports of entry, and conduct research to measure long-term impact on health outcomes of PainSpot.”
How PainSpot Works
PainSpot aims to educate and empower people to better understand their health, so they can get diagnosed and treated faster. A user clicks on a body part (ex: knee, shoulder, hip, foot) where they are experiencing pain and, then, answers a series of easy questions about the nature of their pain. These questions come from the same validated clinical decision-making tools used by healthcare professionals in a clinical setting. After providing an email address, the user receives a summary of three possible conditions that could be causing the pain and is invited to join, for free, the Global Healthy Living Foundation, CreakyJoints and/or the ArthritisPower Research Registry. They will also receive a follow-up email series designed to drive action toward a diagnosis and chart a pathway for living the best, healthiest life with that condition or post-injury.
The first version of PainSpot was created by Doug Roberts, MD, an independent clinical rheumatologist with 30-plus years of experience diagnosing and treating patients with arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases. Dr. Roberts saw firsthand how his patients struggled to understand the causes of their pain while experiencing frustrating delays getting to the right doctor, the right diagnosis, and the right treatment plan.
CreakyJoints is a digital community for millions of arthritis patients and caregivers worldwide who seek education, support, advocacy, and patient-centered research. We represent patients through our popular social media channels, our website www.CreakyJoints.org, and the 50-State Network, which includes more than 1,500 trained volunteer patient, caregiver and healthcare activists.
As part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, CreakyJoints also has a patient-reported outcomes registry called ArthritisPower® with more than 22,000 consented arthritis patients who track their disease while volunteering to participate in longitudinal and observational research. CreakyJoints also publishes the popular “Raising the Voice of Patients” series, which are downloadable patient-centered educational and navigational tools for managing chronic illness. GHLF recently acquired PainSpot, a digital risk assessment tool for musculoskeletal conditions and injuries. For more information and to become a member (for free), visit www.CreakyJoints.org. To participate in our patient-centered research program, visit www.ArthritisPower.org and to evaluate symptoms for a risk assessment, visit www.PainSpot.org.
