Soovu
Process
The challenge
Design an intuitive, personal pain management companion app experience for Soovu's patented HeatWave™ pods.
1 in 5 Americans suffers from chronic pain
It all began when Dr.s Chabal and Dunbar, board certified physicians in pain management at the University of Washington, were personally moved by witnessing the tragedy that opioids wrought on patients and their families. They challenged themselves: could there be a new, drug-free approach to treating chronic pain?
With the support the National Institutes of Health, years of study, experimentation and listening to patients, the doctors discovered that targeted pulses of high energy heat substantially reduces pain. The insight led to the creation of the Soovu HeatWave™ pods. These discreet, wireless pods delivered effective pain relief and have been backed by a number of peer-reviewed published placebo controlled clinical studies, as well as an 8-week real world trial published in The Journal of Pain Research and over 14,500 treatments.
Our challenge is to find a drug-free alternative for chronic pain suffers
Clinical data in hand, the challenge was now how to give chronic pain suffers control of their treatment program to optimize relief.
Key insights
- Heat is a common alternative for chronic pain suffers when medications aren't working
- Pain flare-ups are inconsistent
- Convenience makes medication a powerful option
The insight derived from the clinical trials paved way for prioritizing the key outcomes and features for the companion app.
Prioritized features
- Login
- Session start
- Session set up
- Therapeutic sessions with set up control
- Post-session relief ratings
- Session history
- Device control
- Help
Result
The resulting output was native companion mobile applications (iOS and Android) that provides users with the ability to intuitively initiate and personalize a pain therapy session using the Soovu pods. The Soovu app was released in 2022 and was a finalist for the GeekWire UX of the Year award. My work with the executive team at Soovu continues in creating a B2B go-to-market plan and adapting the product as a employer benefit solution.
