Building the Future of Back Pain Care: From Idea to Prototype

September 18, 2024

60-80% of adults in the UK experience back pain, yet modern care is broken.

Modern back pain care focuses on the symptom rather than the problem.

So it’s not your fault that you still have back pain.

Your physical health is intrinsically tied to your mental health.

The emerging consensus in medical literature is that back pain is largely driven by psychology.

We’re building on top of this research to address the underlying root cause of your back pain.

By tracking your psychology and spinal movement, we tailor care to your mind & body.

1. Identifying the Problem: Understanding the Pain Points

We took the time to understand the issue from all angles. We spoke with healthcare professionals like OBJ’s physiotherapist and Elton John’s osteopath, and dozens of people who deal with chronic back pain everyday. Our goal was simple: understand why modern care fails and pinpoint the unaddressed causes of back pain.

From our conversations, we found 4 problems.

  • Effectiveness: Care often fails to deliver long lasting relief because it focuses on the symptom (pain), rather than the problem (psychology and body).

  • Accessibility: Care is too high effort to maintain.

  • Personalisation (lack-there-of): Care is one-size-fits-all, yet back pain is a personal problem, so care fails.

  • Emotional toll: Persistent pain leaves people feeling frustrated and hopeless

These problems define what we’re building: easy, personalised back pain care which addresses the root cause of the issue.

2. Ideation: Creating Innovative Solutions

Once we grasped the problem, it was time to figure out what to build. It became clear that while many products claim to target back pain, none offer a solution that effectively tracks back movement and provides real, actionable insights.

Our concept was simple yet innovative: a wearable device that monitors back movement, using real-time data to tailor solutions for pain relief. The goal was to create a product that’s not only smart but effortless for the user.

We knew what we needed to build: personalised back pain care plans based on an individual’s psychology and spinal movement data. We landed on building a wearable to track spinal movement.

Some key considerations for our wearable included:

  • What sections of the spine are most critical to track?

  • How will the device be powered while maintaining comfort and usability?

  • How do we ensure the data is both accurate and useful for relieving pain?

We dug through medical papers and spoke to back pain experts all over the world and decided to track the whole spine because we can.

3. Designing Concepts

To turn our ideas of a wearable into a reality, we prototyped fast. We know back pain sucks, so we focussed on creating a wearable that makes you feel protected and strong.

We broke the design into subsystems and produced countless sketches, 3D models. We scoured shops and suppliers to source the best materials for durability and comfort.

The result? A design for a vest that seamlessly integrates electronics into the fabric and drops into daily life, so our users can treat it like any other garment they have in their life. Functional, aesthetic, and durable.

4. Prototyping: Bringing the Design to Life

Prototyping is where the fun, and problems, begin. We spent hours:

  • Sewing and crafting materials to ensure both hardware integration and user comfort.

  • 3D printing to create custom components for the device's housing.

  • Soldering electronics to connect sensors and create the backbone of our data-gathering system.

Each prototype allowed us to refine and improve the design, bringing us closer to a fully functional product.

5. Testing and Iteration: Refining the Prototype

Building the first prototype was just the beginning. The true test was whether it could perform in real-world conditions.

We work closely with our early users, people with chronic back pain, to gather feedback. Their feedback is invaluable in helping us understand the strengths and weaknesses of our design. We revere it. Testing was essential for understanding:

  • Does the device actually improve back pain?

  • Is it comfortable for long-term wear?

  • Can it withstand the rigours of daily life, including exercise and washing?

With our feedback, we iterated, each time refining the design, improved usability, and enhanced the technology to ensure maximum comfort and effectiveness.

Innovating Towards Better Back Pain Care

The journey from idea to prototype is one of grit and technicality, especially when developing solutions for back pain care, an otherwise unsolved problem. By focusing on personalised, effective, and user-friendly designs, we are building a future where chronic back pain is easier to manage—and even prevent.

Through research, creative ideation, detailed design, and constant refinement, we are able to bring innovative solutions that offer real hope for those suffering from back pain.