ManagingLife and Bruyère working to address gap in pain management for Canadians and improve care

March 25, 2024 (Ottawa, ON) – Bruyère, through its membership with the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network, is working to address the gap in chronic pain management through a digital solution that helps patients and care providers measure, monitor, and manage pain.

In 2020, the Government of Canada reported that an estimated 7.63 million, or one in four Canadians aged 15 or older, live with chronic pain. However, many Canadians do not have access to timely and patient-centred care and lack the knowledge and resources to improve their condition.

Founded in 2012, ManagingLife created Manage My Pain (MMP) – the world’s first digital solution for chronic pain that has been clinically validated to improve patient outcomes.

With Manage My Pain, patients are empowered to track their pain, activity, and medication use by submitting daily reflections and detailed pain reports. The app automatically generates graphs and tables to help the patient and their remote care team monitor what makes the pain worse or better, and whether treatments are working.

“Manage My Pain was created to empower people living with chronic pain to self-manage their condition. We are proud to be partnering with Bruyère to help reach even more people across Ontario,” said Tahir Janmohamed, Founder and CEO, ManagingLife.

Through a project supported by the CAN Health Network, Bruyère will implement MMP across three Online Self-Management Programs: Progress Over Pain, Health Coaching, and Living Healthy. This initiative will offer users ongoing support throughout and after program completion by generating pain pattern reports and providing educational materials.

“We are confident that Manage My Pain will provide valuable ongoing support to individuals that have participated in our programs. Self-managing chronic pain is complex and can be overwhelming. We are thrilled to be able to offer this valuable and evidence –based tool to better support Ontarians living with chronic pain,” said Rachel Davidson, Regional Program Coordinator, Chronic Disease Self-Management, Bruyère.

On average, 300 individuals participate in the Progress Over Pain Program annually. This number is expected to increase in the coming year. This program is free to attend and open to anyone in Ontario living with or caring for someone with chronic pain. The goal of introducing MMP to these programs is to enhance the way Ontarians utilize Bruyère’s services, and to increase access to care resources.

“There is a major opportunity here for a Canadian solution to solve a pressing gap in Canada’s health care system,” said Dr. Dante Morra, Founder and Chair, CAN Health Network. “We look forward to the results of this collaboration, and the impact Manage My Pain will have on patients across the province.”

The CAN Health Network is a federally funded organization that works with Canadian health care operators (called Edges), to identify their biggest challenges and match them with Canadian-made technology solutions.

Through projects like this one launched by Bruyère, Canadian companies gain access to real health care environments where they can implement their market-ready solutions, gain valuable feedback from end-users, and scale across the Network and beyond.

“Our government’s CAN Health Network is essential to helping introduce Canadian innovations to the health care market, making our health care system stronger with each and every partnership created,” said the Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business. “The collaboration between Bruyère and ManagingLife will empower more individuals who are suffering from chronic pain to measure, monitor, and manage their symptoms to create more successful treatment plans with their healthcare providers. These are real, innovative tools that are increasing the quality of life for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”

-30-

ABOUT MANAGINGLIFE

ManagingLife is a privately held Corporation based in Toronto, Canada that has developed a digital solution for pain management that combines patient self-management, remote monitoring and analytics to help chronic pain sufferers and practitioners learn more about their condition and better communicate with each other. With its award-winning app, Manage My Pain, ManagingLife works with disability carriers, health plans, pain clinics, and clinical trials to help healthcare professionals better measure and manage their patients’ pain and medications. For more information, please visit managinglife.com

ABOUT BRUYÈRE

Bruyère is Eastern Ontario’s leading health organization specializing in aging, rehabilitation, and care for those with multiple complex medical conditions. We bring together compassionate, person-centred care with world-class research to maximize quality of life for those we care for and their loved ones.

Bruyère has a proven history of addressing gaps in our health system with compassion, innovation, and courage. Today, as an academic health sciences centre, we are training the next generation of health professionals to see—and take action on —creating a better health system for all. To learn more about Bruyère, visit www.bruyere.org/

ABOUT CAN HEALTH NETWORK

The CAN Health Network is a federally funded national organization working to introduce more Canadian innovation into Canada’s health care system. The Network works with Canadian health care operators, referred to as Edges, to identify their biggest challenges and match them with Canadian-made technology solutions. By partnering Canadian companies directly with health care operators, CAN Health enables these companies and their solutions to be rapidly validated, procured and scaled across the Network. To learn more about CAN Health, visit https://canhealthnetwork.ca/

Join the Network and help us lead the new health care economy