Curable app

Curable is an app used to deliver step-by-step education, information and practical strategies to address chronic pain. The app uses a virtual coach with a narrative style and takes a user through the process to adequately understand pain, the reasons for it, the mechanisms behind it, and how we can work to address it. It includes practical exercises to address pain.

The app is aimed at individuals with chronic pain and healthcare providers who want to use this app to help with educating their patients who have chronic pain. For the complete app description, go to Google Play(external link) , iTunes(external link) and the app website(external link) or for a more detailed review, see reviews below.

Clinical review

Free version

Reviewer: Chris Lawrence, Community Physiotherapist
Date of review: June 2023
Version: 5.0.6
Platform: Android (works with Android 5.1 and up)
Comments: Overall, Curable is an excellent app. It addresses the challenging topic of pain education and explains information in an easy-to-understand manner. The education is well-backed by science and research. Users of the app could be confident that they are receiving accurate medical information.
The style that information is presented in is quite effective. It means that a user can have choice in terms of how much information they go through at once, and their preferred style for taking this on.
The price point for this app may be prohibitive for some. However, for a user that may have experienced pain for some time will likely get a lot of benefit from using the app and may feel that this is a worthwhile investment of money, especially when compared to the prices of private appointments.
For health professionals and therapists this could be a good adjunct to therapy, and the additional downloadable resources are likely to be helpful for display in the clinic.
It is likely that being able to take on information around pain management at a user’s own speed, and being able to revisit this information when they need to, can be an excellent approach for understand chronic pain and pain management.
Safety concerns: None. The information through the app is presented in a very safe way, with clear warnings around application. The app is protected in a way that a user needs to go through the education modules before they can jump to exercises, which ensures that a user would go through the information in a safe manner.
New Zealand relevance: Yes – this app provides excellent practical advice that would be very applicable to a NZ context.