Startup Motto has launched with the aim to expand access to rheumatology care by providing a virtual-first platform for patients living with chronic inflammatory disease.
Motto's app enables patients to schedule virtual appointments with rheumatologists, manage symptoms and receive personalized lifestyle recommendations, according to executives.
Motto is currently available in Texas and California and is accepting major in-network insurers in those states.
"Our plan is to partner with large enterprises such as payers," Anuj Patel, Motto's CEO, said in an exclusive interview. "Payers often struggle with managing both the cost and the experience for patients in the autoimmune and chronic inflammatory care space. This is a large unmet need given how expensive these patients are and how few rheumatologists there are available."
Motto was built at Redesign Health, a New York City-based healthcare startup creator that builds tech-enabled healthcare businesses. The company has built and launched 40 healthcare startups since 2018.
Motto offers a virtual integrated medical care and lifestyle program to treat people with autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, according to executives.
Specializing in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, Sjogren’s syndrome and ankylosing spondylitis, Motto aims to expand access to rheumatology care and address the existing gap in diagnosis and treatment for this growing population, Patel said.
Patel, a digital health executive who was an entrepreneur-in-resident at Redesign Health, said he recognized an unmet need for patients in the autoimmune and chronic inflammatory care space.
"We recognize that there's a big asymmetry between this growing population of people that suffer from autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions and the existing infrastructure of the healthcare system to treat this growing population," Patel said. "So what you're seeing is increasing costs, extremely long wait times and a really difficult and burdensome journey.
He added, "We spoke to hundreds of patients with various chronic inflammatory conditions and the universal thing we've heard over and over again was just how burdensome and how difficult their journey was towards getting diagnosed and treating their condition."
From the onset of symptoms, it can take up to five years to receive adequate treatment because symptoms often mirror countless other illnesses, making it complicated to diagnose and treat these diseases accurately, according to the company.
More than 24 million people in the U.S. suffer from an autoimmune disease, up to 8% of the population, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Access to existing brick-and-mortar rheumatology practices is challenging, with only 4,600 rheumatologists nationwide. Chronic inflammatory conditions are expensive to treat due to their incurable and prolonged nature. According to a recent Journal of Clinical Medicine study, they are just as costly as more well-known diseases such as cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with annual direct healthcare costs projected to exceed $100 billion.
The status quo forces patients to wait months, if not years, to get adequate treatment from a rheumatologist, Patel said. Patients also have the added burden of managing medications and making difficult diet and lifestyle changes all on their own.
"We believe our coordinated care model will help improve access and close important diagnostic gaps for primary care providers, improve quality of life and patient experience, and ultimately result in better outcomes for patients, providers and the health system,” Patel said.
Motto's platform combines specialized medical care and evidence-based lifestyle coaching, dietary support and physical therapy, according to the company.
“Autoimmune conditions are complex and often require more time than traditional practices provide to get to the heart of the issue,” Elizabeth Ortiz, M.D., a board-certified rheumatologist and medical director at Motto, said in a statement. “Motto supports primary care providers with a holistic care plan that meets the needs of this patient population so that they can feel better faster and effectively manage their condition over the long term.”
Motto’s clinical model combines a virtual medical clinic that provides a 360-degree approach to care so patients can quickly access their treatment plans and schedule virtual appointments with rheumatologists and a curriculum-based, personalized lifestyle program to help manage symptoms, including the implementation of evidence-based interventions such as diet, stress, sleep management and exercise, according to Motto executives.
The company also offers condition management tools, such as a digital flare tracker that helps patients track and manage symptoms, aiming to increase awareness of personal triggers by capturing clinically validated longitudinal data.
The adoption of virtual care and digital health accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and has proven to be a model that can democratize access to care, according to Patel.
"Our virtual model allows patients access to care conveniently from their own homes," he said. "In the clinical model that we've developed, we can provide much better triage. We have standard validated patient-reported instruments. These are basically surveys that help us measure pain, fatigue and disease activity. Patient are reporting on those from our app and that allows our rheumatology team to really understand, 'Is this patient's symptoms getting worse?' 'Do they need to be seen sooner than their scheduled appointment?' These are all things that we can do to provide a better patient experience but then also triage patients when needed."
The company's name, Motto, was derived from the concept of providing patients with a daily motto to help improve their health and daily lives.
"The one thing that people often overlook is that this is a chronic disease, you are managing this disease in perpetuity for the rest of your life. The average diagnosis point actually happens between ages 18 and 29 and 40 and 49. You're diagnosed in that square working part of your life and you're managing this for a very long time," Patel said.
He added, "For these patients, no two days are the same and no two patients are the same. What Motto is essentially trying to think about is what is the daily motto to say to yourself that's going to keep you on a path towards better health."