This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: The Podcast” features Dave Grandin, CEO for Kiio.
This Madison startup has a pain management system for people with lower back pain. Grandin returns to the podcast to discuss what’s changed for Kiio in the past year, and touches on a new partnership with Walgreens, Kiio’s biggest customer yet.
“Since the last time we spoke, there’s really been some significant progress,” he said. “We did a study with Quartz, which is the UW health plan, as well as we’ve added on a significant number of new customers.”
Kiio supplies its digital therapeutic platform to health plans, as well as employers for their workers who experience lower back pain. The platform is now being used by five insurers covering much of Wisconsin and parts of nearby Midwest states.
“When you get reductions in pain, reductions in drug use, better outcomes and savings, that’s a win-win-win,” he said. “For the patient, for the health plan, and of course for Kiio because then we’ve got happy customers.”
Grandin shares that he has been suffering from lower back pain, and used the Kiio system in late December after experiencing a flare-up.
“I used it for about seven or eight days, and I was already feeling better. But just because I was feeling better is not a good reason to stop,” he said. “You want to go through the entire program, and so a lot of the things we’re doing are to make the program easier to use, more friendly, more engaging, more fun.”
He says Kiio has made progress in that area already, “but there’s more work to do.”
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
