Each year, tens of millions of people in America are prescribed opioids and benzodiazepines to address physical pain and mental health challenges. These medications help, but they’re also a double edged sword leading many patients into a cycle of addiction or dependence and causing billions of dollars in avoidable downstream healthcare system costs. 

The issue is detailed and complex. At its core is the need to integrate medical, behavioral and motivational care on a consistent basis in order to achieve patient freedom from dependence or addiction, and the current medical system is not set up well to deliver this integrated type of care.

Patients, doctors and payers all are unhappy with the current outcomes. But doctors especially are stuck in the middle. Patients with pain (physical or mental or both) demand more prescriptions from their doctors and regulators and insurance companies pressure them to prescribe fewer drugs.

Here’s the good news: Lucid Lane offers a solution for patients, doctors and payers alike and today, I’m thrilled to share Accel’s partnership. 

The telehealth platform delivers a uniquely high tech and high touch solution that combines therapy and digital innovation. Patients are paired with a therapist who specializes in mental health, motivation, and medication tapering to motivate their patients and adapt treatment to get the good out of prescription drugs, with much less of the bad. The data-driven model ensures patient insights are shared with the patient and provider team, to modify treatment in real-time and monitor the patient's state of well-being.

Adnan Asar, Lucid Lane’s founder and CEO, is one of the biggest reasons for our investment. Adnan is uniquely passionate and positioned to tackle the challenge. He is familiar with the pain and complexity of opioid and benzodiazepine use, after his beloved family member struggled with addiction after cancer treatment. He’s also a brilliant entrepreneur. As the previous founding CTO of Livongo Health, which offers a product and technology solution similar to Lucid Lane, but for diabetes, he has passion, connectivity, know-how, and proof.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention the golden moment it is for telehealth solutions. The pandemic increased patient comfort with the world of online therapy, making it a really special and important time in digital health. We can’t wait to support Lucid Lane as they change lives.