Case Study: Crescendo Bioscience achieves effortless rheumatoid arthritis symptom tracking with Pivotal

Takes the pain out of tracking rheumatoid arthritis

Crescendo Bioscience, a San Francisco–based healthcare company later acquired by Myriad Genetics for $270 million, needed a better way for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients to report symptom trends between infrequent rheumatology visits. RA symptoms can change daily, so Crescendo wanted a simple, visual summary patients could use to track joint pain, morning stiffness, medication and other outcomes over time.

Partnering with Pivotal Labs, Crescendo built MyRA, an iOS/Android app that uses an approachable character and heat‑map interaction—colored dots on limbs that grow with taps—to make symptom tracking quick and intuitive and to generate elegant summary reports for physicians. The highly visual design helped tracking become habitual, empowered patients to communicate more effectively during appointments, and exceeded Crescendo’s expectations as a novel tool for RA management.

Crescendo Bioscience