5/6/2025
Glimmer Health, a new company that supports primary care physicians in providing effective, comprehensive chronic pain management, is officially being unveiled today by UPMC Enterprises and Redesign Health. It is the second company built, funded and launched by the partnership, which creates innovative health care companies.
Chronic pain affects 1 in 4 American adults, and primary care physicians are the front line in helping these patients find relief. Glimmer Health provides an evidence-based platform pioneered in UPMC’s world class network of pain management clinics, which deliver multimodal care. With Glimmer Health, primary care physicians are supplied with comprehensive pain assessments and treatment plans that suggest a pain management approach tailored to each patient.
“Primary care physicians are overburdened and under-resourced, making it incredibly difficult to manage the complex and nuanced care needed to treat patients with chronic pain,” said Alissa Meade, founder and CEO of Glimmer Health. “Glimmer Health removes the management burden, allowing primary care physicians to focus on partnering directly with their patients to secure enduring pain relief and achieve their health goals.”
Nearly 70 million U.S. adults experience clinically significant chronic pain requiring them to seek treatment, most often from their primary care physician. Low back pain and arthritis-related pain are the most frequent, and result in significant disability, lost time from work and unnecessary suffering. Treating chronic pain often requires a multimodal approach that can vary from patient to patient and may involve physical or occupational therapy, medication, integrative medicine, interventional procedures, as well as mental health care.
Over 12 years, UPMC’s pain clinics pioneered comprehensive assessment and multimodal treatment approaches applied to every patient, led by Ajay Wasan, M.D., M.Sc., professor of anesthesiology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and vice chair for pain medicine at Pitt and UPMC. A past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the leading professional society for multidisciplinary pain care, Dr. Wasan and UPMC Pain Management clinicians showed that high quality, comprehensive pain care can be delivered by telemedicine.
Glimmer Health aims to extend that approach to primary care practices nationwide. In addition to Glimmer nurse practitioners supporting the primary care providers in managing their patients suffering from chronic pain, Glimmer also provides care managers and social workers trained in pain management, who provide seamless care coordination and regularly consult with patients to ensure they are adhering to the care plans and are most effectively achieving pain relief.
“We’ve seen excellent outcomes among patients in our pain clinics and are excited to launch Glimmer Health to expand this digital solution to primary care physicians and their patients nationwide,” said Dr. Wasan, who is the Medical Director at Glimmer Health and oversees 15 pain clinics across the UPMC integrated health care system. “Chronic pain can be managed with a thoughtful approach to care, conveniently tailored to each individual patient and overseen by their trusted physician.”
Glimmer Health extends the reach of primary care physicians by providing specialty pain care and behavioral health resources that seamlessly integrate with primary care teams. This streamlines referrals and follow-ups, reducing between-visit communications and prescription refill management and freeing physicians and their staff to focus on direct patient care.
“Chronic pain management is overdue for an innovative, holistic solution that wraps both the patient and the clinician with a tech-enabled platform that conveniently addresses the unique social, environmental and physical factors impacting each patient’s health,” said Ryan Schneiter, managing director at Redesign Health. “Glimmer Health is that evidence-backed, value-based, comprehensive solution.”
Glimmer Health partners with primary care physicians to:
- Provide multimodal support that improves patient outcomes
- Gain time on the schedule and reduce administrative burden
- Generate additional revenue – there is never a cost to providers or their practices
- Leverage proven chronic pain management protocols that decrease reliance on opioids