NeuroMetrix has accrued over a million hours of Quell therapy and health data uploaded to the Quell Health Cloud as of August 1, 2016.
Quell is a wearable therapeutic technology that provides drug-free relief from chronic pain and is available without a prescription. The device communicates with a smartphone app that provides objective feedback to the user about their therapy utilization, sleep characteristics and activity levels. This data is securely backed up to the Quell Health Cloud. Novel insights from an analysis of this data include:
- Quell is used 6 hours a day, on average. This intensive level of utilization is expected given that Quell is often used to help manage moderate to severe chronic pain such as low back pain, nerve pain, arthritic pain, and fibromyalgia.
- The majority of people with chronic pain suffer from low quality sleep and 71 percent of Quell owners have used their device while sleeping. About 38 percent of Quell therapy is delivered between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Quell users sleep an average of 6.6 hours per night, which is close to the minimum of 7 hours recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) for promotion of optimal health and reduced levels of pain.
- The Quell Health Cloud data also exposes challenges experienced by those with chronic pain. Nearly 40 percent of Quell users average less than 6 hours of sleep. About 27 percent of users have a high number of periodic leg movements, which may disrupt sleep and is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
- People suffering from chronic pain often have reduced levels of activity, which further increases their pain and elevates their risk of obesity and heart disease among other chronic conditions. Encouragingly, users wearing Quell for at least 4 hours during daytime hours walk an average of 34 minutes per day with their device. This meets the American Heart Association (AHA) recommendations for physical activity in adults.
