Flo Health has published what it says is the first-ever economic evaluation of a digital symptom checker for endometriosis, with peer-reviewed findings suggesting its tool could cut diagnostic delay by more than half and generate nearly $10,100 in net monetary benefit per patient over 40 years.
The study, published in npj Digital Medicine (part of the Nature Portfolio), was conducted in partnership with researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the York Health Economic Consortium. It compared health and economic outcomes of using Flo’s Symptom Checker alongside standard care versus standard care alone.
The headline numbers: Women using the Symptom Checker received diagnoses in approximately 3 years compared to the 7-year average under standard care alone. The tool generated approximately $5,196 in savings per person through reduced medical costs and productivity gains, and patients gained nearly three additional weeks of healthy life as measured by quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The total net monetary benefit per patient reached $10,089 based on a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100,000 per QALY – a standard benchmark for U.S. institutional payers.
“When women are empowered to take control of their health, the benefits go beyond early diagnoses to overall improved physical and emotional well-being,” said Dr. Anna Klepchukova, Flo Health’s chief medical officer.
This is a significant data point for the broader digital health industry. The researchers noted that digital symptom checkers provide the greatest value when tool accuracy exceeds 70%, user compliance surpasses 45%, and outcomes are measured over a minimum 10-year time horizon – parameters that could serve as benchmarks for other companies building similar tools. The authors also indicated that the economic modeling framework could be replicated to evaluate digital tools targeting other conditions that disproportionately affect women and face similar diagnostic delays.
More than 2.7 million women in the U.S. have used Flo’s Symptom Tracker for endometriosis-related support. The tool is designed as an educational resource that helps users identify symptom patterns consistent with endometriosis and prompt earlier conversations with providers – it is not intended to diagnose or replace professional medical care.
