Quell® Mobile App

NeuroMetrix, Inc.

Quell’s wearable device brings drug-free relief for people suffering from chronic pain. The Quell Relief mobile app helps 10,000 users/month control their therapy and improve their pain management.

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MESSA and its design logo are marks owned by Michigan Education Special Services Association, registered in the U.S.

The Quell Relief mobile app for iOS and Android gives users the ability to control their therapy and provides insights into their therapy, sleep, activity, and pain.

The Quell Device

The Quell wearable pain relief device from NeuroMetrix fights chronic pain by stimulating nerves in the upper calf, which send neural pulses to the brain. This causes the brain to release natural opiates that block pain signals and deliver widespread pain relief throughout the body.

Quell is a new alternative to treating chronic pain, and the first device of its kind approved by the FDA for use during sleep.

The Quell Relief App

Atomic developed the accompanying Quell Relief mobile app, which lets the user:

Start and stop therapy sessions and adjust the intensity of therapy.
Customize therapy (including stimulation patterns and sleep modes) to suit their pain level.
Track and review detailed insights about therapy, sleep, pain, and activity.

It also displays the battery level and the remaining life of the device’s electrodes, and it links directly to Quell’s online store.

Quell Relief syncs with the device via Bluetooth LE. Both iOS and Android versions are available.

Coordinating Stakeholders

In addition to team members Grand Rapids and Atomic Object, this project brought together lots of different groups. Having this many cooks in the kitchen required a lot of coordination and a complex project schedule that balanced several timelines and sets of constraints.

Recycling data from the GR Public Services Department

Dozens of vendors with rewards of various sizes, types, and durations — recruited and coordinated by Local First

The myGRcitypoints information website, created by The Image Shoppe

Technical Specs

Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:

Custom Protocol

Reduces required bandwidth and handle collisions, allowing reliable transfer of a high volume of information through RF and cellular communications back to the data collection service.

Gateway Devices

Each is a Technologic TS 7800 single-board computer with a custom RF receiver. They run a combination of C and Ruby on an embedded Linux system.

Web App

A JRuby on Rails application using an Oracle database that deploys to IBM Websphere.

Results

Nearly 60,000 Quell devices have been shipped to customers.
The Quell Relief mobile app has 20,900 active users/month, accessing the app an average of 28,500 times/day.
A study of quell’s effectiveness was included in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pain Research.
During an Ipsos user study, 81% of Quell users reported improvement in chronic pain and overall health, and 67% of users reported a reduction in their pain medication.

Quell in the News

10 Wearables That Stole The Show At CES, CRN
The Medicine-Free Pain Relieving Device, The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation
This Wearable Fights Chronic Pain—Without Drugs, Fast Company
Quell hacks your brain to relieve chronic pain, CNET
Read More Articles

Taste-testing the Product in the Field

Working with Atomic has been great. They’ve really invested themselves in understanding the product—they use the devices and play around with them. We almost consider them part of the company. The team is exceptional. It’s a very smart group of people, very invested in the software they’re developing.

Shai Gozani, M.D., Ph.D., CEO, NeuroMetrix, Inc.

Coordinating Stakeholders

Recycling data from the GR Public Services Department

Dozens of vendors with rewards of various sizes, types, and durations — recruited and coordinated by Local First

The myGRcitypoints information website, created by The Image Shoppe

A Partnership with a Storybook Ending

The team’s careful project management, client communication, cutting-edge architecture, and cohesive design strategy helped the team ship the product on time and on budget.

Reflecting back on the multi-year, high-profile project, Robinson said Atomic helped his company arrive at a special moment in time.

“We'd never done anything this big. Ever,” he said. “We’re live across all the major pillars Atomic said they would deliver on. It was delivered on time, on budget, to expectation, live. Not three or four milestones late with people leaving and the platform half-baked and full of bugs.”

StoryLoom began open-beta in December 2022. A global launch is scheduled for the spring of 2023.

“We’ve been given a rare opportunity," said Robinson, "to find success by chasing opportunities Starship Enterprise-style: going where people aren’t—pushing boundaries.”

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Atomic provided iOS and Android mobile app development for Quell Relief using Objective-C, ReactiveCocoa, and Java. Atomic also developed the Quell Health Cloud, a server-side component that stores usage and sleep history for Quell Relief users. IDEO completed the industrial design and mechanical engineering of the Quell medical device.