One of the biggest mistakes employers can make is selecting an innovative app or platform without considering what end users are willing to sustainably integrate into their daily lives. Even the coolest technology will be ineffective if employees aren’t willing to use it.When selecting which of these solutions to introduce for employee populations, health benefits leaders can evaluate the myriad options along five key criteria: Prediction, Proof Points, Personalization, Participation, and Practicality, or "The Five Ps Framework":

Digital Health: An Employer Framework for Evaluating What Works

<div><span style="font-size: medium;">When stiff and achy joints are the problem, exercising may not seem like an intuitive activity to alleviate the pain that’s a common osteoarthritis (OA) symptom. Yet, numerous clinical studies point to exercise as highly effective in improving pain and function in people with arthritis.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“Physical therapy exercises are commonly prescribed to individuals with osteoarthritis as a conservative pain treatment option,” says Dr. Navin Mallavaram, a practicing pain management specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“We’ve heard from hundreds of our users that being able to follow SimpleTherapy’s guided video exercise therapy programs from home is a huge advantage,” says Helena Plater-Zyberk, Chief Executive Officer, SimpleTherapy. “When pain makes everyday activities like getting into a car difficult, the ease is highly compelling. You can be skyping with grandkids one minute and clicking to start a therapy program online the next. It’s seamless.”</span></div>

Simple New Way To Combat Arthritis Pain, Online

Physical Therapy At Home, Free for All VeteransNovember, 2015 – NEW YORK – Over 50 percent of veterans report that bodily pain interferes with work performance, social activities, and daily living, according to data released in the <a href="http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/939520/2015_wwp_alumni_survey_-_full_report.pdf">Wounded Warriors Project’s 2015 Annual Survey</a>. Physical therapy is the most commonly prescribed remedy for musculoskeletal pain, but the need for frequent appointments and multiple in-person visits to health clinics inhibits its accessibility for many veterans.To address veterans needs, New York City-based <a href="http://www.simpletherapy.com/">SimpleTherapy</a>, a faster, online alternative to traditional physical therapy, is collaborating with <a href="https://news.aetna.com/veterans-can-get-free-access-video-based-exercise-therapy-aetna/">Aetna Innovation Labs</a> to make its personalized pain recovery program available to all of America’s 22 million veterans, at no cost.Veterans can begin SimpleTherapy immediately, with no wait times, no paperwork, and no prescription, by completing a quick personalization questionnaire, and starting the first 15 minute exercise therapy session at <a href="http://www.simpletherapy.com/veterans">www.simpletherapy.com/veterans</a>. The range of programs available includes those that address pain in the lower back, hip, knee, shoulder, neck, foot and more, with 18 program options in all. Veterans who enroll before December 31, 2015 will receive access to an unlimited number of personalized video-guided exercise therapy sessions for up to one year, for free.

Waiting for physical therapy? SimpleTherapy starts immediately, online. All Vets get 1 year of access, free.

After national attention on the long wait times for health services many veterans endure,<span class="xn-location">New York City</span>-based <a href="http://www.simpletherapy.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">SimpleTherapy</a>, the only fully online alternative to traditional physical therapy, is working with Aetna Innovation Labs to make its pain recovery program available to America's 22 million veterans, for free. Aetna Innovation Labs is an organization within Aetna that improves healthcare quality and reduces costs for customers and members through unique ideas, programs, and market-leading capabilities.Founded in 2011 by a team of orthopedic specialists, SimpleTherapy uses a proprietary algorithm that learns from user input and feedback to create personalized video-based pain recovery sessions that guide users along their pain recovery path. There are 18 starting points for the programs ranging from neck to lower back to foot. Thousands of users with lower back pain, osteoarthritis, and sports or work injuries have reported extreme satisfaction with a considerable decrease in pain.

Veterans Get Immediate and Personalized Pain Recovery Help

<div><span style="font-size: medium;">Going to the bank, perusing plotlines at a bookstore, and even grocery shopping have all become too inconvenient. Using on-demand online interfaces is now second nature. But when did going to a trained medical professional for in-person treatment also become “too inconvenient”?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Number one on Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s "2015 Top Health Industry Issues" list is Do-It-Yourself (DIY) digital healthcare. What’s driving the top trend boils down to this consumer attitude: Why wait in a doctor’s office when you can cut out the middle man and take care of yourself?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">DIY Healthcare v1.0 arrived with the launch of WebMD and its contemporaries in the late 90s. It just didn’t have a name yet. DIY then represented an individual’s ability to obtain online information that traditionally would have been dispensed by a physician, or the sense of empowerment gained from self-learning about a specific diagnosis. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The term DIY Health first cropped up in mainstream media in a 2009 <i>New York Times</i> article, “For Uninsured Young Adults, Do-it-Yourself Healthcare,” describing a generation of 20-30 year old “Young Invincibles” in Brooklyn, NY. Uninsured, they took to playing doctor using websites like WebMD and online discussion forums. In the article, a student stockpiles syringes to inject his own diabetes medicine, and a waiter successfully diagnoses himself with plantar fasciitis and calls out of work. </span></div>

Healthcare DIY: No Longer Pie in the Sky

<p><span style="color: #33cccc;">PAIN RECOVERY ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, WITHOUT CLINIC VISITS</span></p><p><em>NEW YORK, NY. &nbsp;</em>SimpleTherapy Inc., a New York City-based company that has been pilot testing its online exercise therapy programs for a year, has emerged from beta with two large health insurance companies as customers and $1.3 million in angel backing.</p><p>The company is already in talks with east and west coast venture funds as it prepares to raise an additional $3 million in early 2015, says Chief Executive Officer Helena Plater-Zyberk.</p><p>SimpleTherapy is algorithm-driven, allowing each user to instantaneously embark on a video-based exercise therapy program that’s customized to his or her pain needs. The programs, covering head-to-toe pain points, are comprised of a series of 15-20 minute video sessions that are generated on demand for each user after a series of inputs. Upon each subsequent login, the user’s program adapts to his or her feedback. Users progress along a personal path to pain recovery, which typically takes a matter of weeks.</p><p>In the U.S., musculoskeletal pain is the number two reason for doctor visits, resulting in a $300 billion pain management industry. Busy professionals and baby boomers alike are unable to follow through on the over 100 million physical therapy prescriptions issued annually, resulting in chronic pain problems and further escalating healthcare costs.</p><p>“We designed SimpleTherapy in response to patient need. Only a small fraction of patients with musculoskeletal pain are able to attend physical therapy consistently due to cost and time constraints,” says Nic Gay MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, as well as a practicing orthopaedic surgeon in the San Francisco Bay Area. “We’ve created a more convenient online option for people, globally, who suffer from episodic and chronic pain.”</p><p>Several startups are testing digital physical therapy options that run on add-on devices, such as Microsoft Kinect. These programs are designed to supplement in-person physical therapy clinic visits and may incrementally lower the barriers to physical therapy compliance.</p><p>“SimpleTherapy’s approach is to eliminate the barrier,” says the Chief Executive. “We believe in the merits of traditional physical therapy. Yet, the vast majority of adults struggle with access to in-person treatment. Now they can receive the pain recovery help they need from their own living rooms, or via mobile connections, when it’s convenient. Clinic visits are no longer an obstacle to pain recovery.”</p><p>SimpleTherapy’s two new customers, both Top 7 health insurance companies, are offering the service to members through dedicated online portals. Up to eight additional large self-insured employers will also offer SimpleTherapy to their employees as a virtual healthcare option in 2015.</p><p>Visit <a href="http://www.simpletherapy.com/">www.simpletherapy.com</a> for more information.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong><em>Media Inquiries:</em></strong></p><p><em>info@simpletherapy.com</em></p><p><em>1-800-644-2478 or 646-460-9030</em></p><div class="d-flex justify-content-md-start justify-content-center mb-3 mb-md-4"><a class="button small-button primary-button" style="color: #ffffff" onmouseover="this.style.color='#E67102';" onmouseout="this.style.color='#ffffff';" href=""></a></div>

SimpleTherapy Launches The First Online Alternative to Physical Therapy

<p>Timothy Hay |&nbsp;November 17, 2014</p><p>(c) 2014 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.</p><p>SimpleTherapy Inc., a company that has been beta-testing its video physical-therapy regimens for nearly a year, is coming out of stealth with two large customers and $1.3 million in angel funding, the company said.</p><p>New York-based company is in talks with venture firms as it raises $3 million to $4 million in Series A financing, Chief Executive Helena Plater-Zyberk said…</p><p>You can read the full&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;article&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/11/17/the-daily-startup-insightsquared-raises-cash-to-improve-business-intel/">here</a>.</p>

The Wall Street Journal – SimpleTherapy Out of Beta With $1.3M for Video Physical-Therapy Regimens

<p class="title">As CEO of <a href="http://www.simpletherapy.com/" target="_hplink">SimpleTherapy</a>, Helena Plater-Zyberk's mission is to make the benefits of therapeutic exercise accessible via online video to anyone who can't get to physical therapy. Customized exercise therapy sessions are queued from SimpleTherapy's vast video library, and programs adapt intelligently to individual needs. Participants gain the convenience of anytime, anywhere exercise therapy at a small fraction of the cost of traditional in-person physical therapy services.</p>Prior to joining SimpleTherapy, Helena was executive director of Scholastic Inc.'s professional learning business unit, Scholastic Achievement Partners. Before Scholastic, she served as vice president of marketing at Alacra, a data-integration software and solutions provider for the financial services industry. She was also a former director of strategy and consumer insights at Condé Nast.

Women in Business Q&A: Helena Plater-Zyberk, CEO SimpleTherapy

The amount of venture capital money being pumped into start-ups is at its highest level since 2001, but it’s still <a href="https://www.pwcmoneytree.com/MTPublic/ns/nav.jsp?page=historical">nowhere near</a> what it was like at the heyday of the tech bubble era. Raising money is hard to begin with, and it’s the lifeblood of a new business. On the other hand, you also have to be careful what you wish for. If you are one of the lucky companies who makes it to the level where big investors want a piece of you, then...you have a whole new problem to think about.Wendy Nguyen and a couple of friends founded <a href="https://www.healthyout.com/">HealthyOut</a>, an online and mobile app to help people find healthy restaurant food. As Nguyen puts it: “We want to get people healthy restaurant food in two clicks, to make that choice really convenient and easy to do every day."

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