Health Makers: Putting a Virtual Care Platform to Work for People With Autoimmune Conditions

In Scottish Gaelic, the word “aila” means “from the strong place.” It’s not surprising that Rory Stanton chose it as the name for her company, Aila Health, a virtual-care platform for people with autoimmune diseases, which occur when the immune system attacks the body’s tissues, organs, and cells.

Until about eight years ago, Stanton, 33, knew nothing about these diseases. But then a female cousin and several other family members and friends were diagnosed. And they are hardly alone.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at least 23.5 million Americans live with an autoimmune disease, and the numbers are rising. Per the NIH, there are more than 80 autoimmune diseases, among them psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and lupus. Symptoms of an autoimmune disease can include fatigue, joint pain and swelling, abdominal pain, and digestive issues, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

But here’s the kicker: Many people with an autoimmune condition haven’t been properly diagnosed; these diseases are often “invisible,” because the symptoms come and go.

“The idea that you have these overlapping phenotypes makes it really hard to differentiate one [disease] from another,” said Stanton, who has a degree in human biology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and an MBA from the University of California in Berkeley. “That’s why patients go years to get a diagnosis.”

Beyond that, almost all the patients Stanton has interviewed over the years have one thing in common: They haven’t felt seen or heard by their doctors, or they’ve been told that they’re “imagining” their symptoms.

She decided to change that by creating Aila Health, whose mission is to bring personalized care to every autoimmune patient and help people manage their illnesses.

“We wanted to do something to capture the data to make people more empowered when they are communicating what’s going on inside their own bodies,” she says.

Also, because autoimmune diseases present so differently in each person, people need personal care plans. “We wanted to tackle organization of data, understanding what’s unique to you,” she said. “One rheumatoid arthritis patient is different from another.  We provide a platform where they can track their health over time and develop a personalized baseline.”

The company uses artificial intelligence to aid healthcare providers and patients in making data-driven health decisions. The free app, for example, allows patients to track all their health activities and appointments in one place; monitor symptoms and flare-ups; and connect with a community of others like them. For $150 a month, patients get monthly one-on-one meetings with a health coach, unlimited messaging, personalized exercise and nutrition plans, and stress management and mindfulness training.

Patients often have a healthcare team of as many as 10 people and keep their medical information in large binders. Through the app, users can pull all their health information together and track it in one place.

“They can see what could be triggering a flare-up or a symptom. So that over time we can predict, ‘Okay, these things are occurring,’” she said. “It’s like a learning and virtual healthcare system.”

There’s also built-in holistic health training, with which subscribers can to learn how to modify their diet to reduce the inflammatory response, or develop stress reduction techniques.

“We want to bring precision medicine to the field of autoimmune diseases,” said Stanton. “As with oncology, we’ve seen a ton of investment and innovation in precision medicine. There’s a huge need for this in the autoimmune space.”