Kaia Health

Product Overview

Medical condition:

MSK pain, such as back, hip, knee, neck, wrist, hand, ankle, foot, and shoulder pain.

Target patient population:

Patients over the age of 18 with chronic, acute, or presurgery MSK conditions.

What to expect:

Users should expect an improved ability to self-manage their MSK pain.

Note: for more information, please visit https://kaiahealth.com/.

Clinical Overview

Indications for use:

The Kaia Health product is intended for multidisciplinary rehabilitation of nonspecific MSK pain following previous episodes of nonspecific pain (acute MSK), non-specific pain that has persisted for longer than 4 weeks (subacute and chronic MSK), or rehabilitation prior to surgery (presurgical). Patients can use the product with or without current or past supervision from medical professionals but need to have undergone prior medical examination to exclude causes for MSK pain that would require specific treatment. The product is designed to be used directly by laypersons in a home setting without prior training.

Outcomes:

Kaia Health’s recent trial results have demonstrated that their product use, when compared with standard of care, resulted in a 136% reduction in pain, 115% improvement in anxiety, 117% improvement in depression, and 200% reduction in stress compared with the control group.*

*Studies listed below

Directions:

The Kaia Health product offers a self-directed program that is intended to aid in the self-management of chronic, acute, and presurgical MSK conditions. Users are encouraged to use the Kaia Health app regularly, both when MSK symptoms are and are not active. The Kaia Health product educates users on proper use of the product, as do health coaches who are available through the app and telephonically.

Risks & warnings:

The Kaia Health product may not be suitable for individuals who are not cleared for physical activity by their physician. 

Potential contraindications include spinal injury or fracture; decreased bone density; spinal tumor; spinal infection; disc herniation; previous spinal surgery; advanced heart disease; conditions affecting control of the lower body; MSK problems affecting major joints in the lower body; pregnancy; gait imbalance; a history of falls; coagulopathy; or a history of bleeding events.

Place in therapy:
Complementary to current therapy

Product Access

Product description:

The Kaia Health product is a mobile application, accessed via an iOS or Android device (smartphone or tablet). It delivers a self-management program for MSK based on multimodal rehabilitation (MMR), an integrative, evidence-based approach to pain that includes guided physical exercises, relaxation practices, and pain education. The program is dynamically adapted and personalized to the user’s activity and needs. Kaia also pairs users with accredited health coaches to support them on their journey to MSK health. MMR is the existing international gold-standard approach for chronic pain.*

Prescription status:

A prescription is not required.

Patient access:

Users receive paid access to the Kaia Health product through their health plan or employer, or they can be referred by their physician. Once eligible, users receive instructions on how to download the Kaia Health app through the Apple App Store or Google PlayTM Store. Thereafter, the entire program is facilitated through the Kaia Health product. Daily training sessions are delivered to users directly on their device. Users can also interact with their Kaia Coach through the app. 

Use of this product requires:

• Internet or WiFi for initial download, syncing, computer vision, and Kaia Coach access
• A smartphone or tablet (iOS or Android)

Provider access:

Healthcare providers may access Kaia Health product data to monitor patient usage and clinical outcomes. They can also use Kaia Health product data to adapt the care pathway plans for their patients. In the future, this data may be available in EHRs.

Coverage options:

The Kaia Health product is typically paid for by insurance plans or covered under self-insured employers’ medical benefits policies.

Product availability:

Kaia is available in:

• USA: Low-risk device under FDA enforcement discretion that is compliant with FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Quality System guidelines
• EU: Class II low-risk medical device, compliant with EU MDD

*Kamper SJ et al., Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. The BMJ. 2015;350:h444

Clinical Trials

• Study Title: App-Based Feedback for Rehabilitation Exercise Correction in Patients With Knee or Hip Osteoarthritis: Prospective Cohort Study (2021)
  Study Design: Prospective Cohort
  Outcomes: The results demonstrated that Kaia Health computer vision technology is noninferior to physiotherapist evaluations. Interrater agreement did not differ between 2 physiotherapists or between physiotherapists and the Kaia Health app. This finding was valid for all investigated exercises and subgroups. These results confirm the ability of Kaia Health computer vision technology to detect user form during exercise and provide valid feedback to users with musculoskeletal disorders.
• Study Title: Digital Treatment of Back Pain versus Standard of Care: The Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial, Rise-uP (2020)
  Study Design: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
  Outcomes: Compared to three months of standard-of-care treatment (including medication utilization to surgical interventions), Kaia demonstrated twice the level of pain reduction compared to standard-of-care. Additionally, secondary outcomes (anxiety, depression, stress, wellbeing, and body functionality) showed greater improvement in the Kaia group than in standard-of-care patients. Anxiety, depression, stress, and mental wellbeing deteriorated in the control group receiving standard-of-care treatments, while patients in the Kaia group improved on all of four variables.
• Study Title: Less Pain, Better Sleep? The Effect of a Multidisciplinary Back Pain App on Sleep Quality in Individuals Suffering from Back Pain–a Secondary Analysis of App User Data (2019)
  Study Design: Retrospective Cohort
  Outcomes: This study demonstrates that after a 12-week program with the Kaia Health app, users reported a substantial increase in sleep quality, which was related to pain reduction. This analysis underscores the relationship between pain and sleep in the clinical context. Improvement in sleep quality accompanied pain reduction and vice versa.
• Study Title: App-based multidisciplinary back pain treatment versus combined physiotherapy plus online education: a randomized controlled trial (2019)
  Study Design: Independent Randomized Control Trial
  Outcomes: Kaia, as a multidisciplinary back pain program, is effective in helping people with lower back pain manage back pain and is superior to physiotherapy in combination with online education about symptoms
• Study Title: Implementing Systematically Collected User Feedback to Increase User Retention in a Mobile App for Self-Management of Low Back Pain: Retrospective Cohort Study (2018)
  Study Design: Observational Study
  Outcomes: This study indicates that the implementation of systematically collected user feedback during development of updated versions can contribute to improvements in terms of frequency of use and potentially even clinical endpoints such as pain level
• Study Title: Treatment of Low Back Pain with a Digital Multidisciplinary Pain Treatment App: Short-Term Results (2017)
  Study Design: Observational Study
  Outcomes: This retrospective study showed that in a pre-selected population of product users, an app digitalizing multidisciplinary rehabilitation for the self-management of LBP reduced user-reported pain levels significantly. The observed effect size was clinically relevant. Ongoing prospective RCTs will adjust for potential bias and selection effects.