Every headache sufferer knows the first question: “Have you had enough water?” It is well-meaning, but, as Dr. Elizabeth Loder at Harvard University says in a New England Journal of Medicine videoon migraine:
“It is not always the case that you have a headache because you did something wrong.”
More than twenty million Americans live with undiagnosed migraines, and for those individuals, water isn’t what they need. What they need is encouragement to have their symptoms checked.
Epidemiologists tell us that most of them will not seek treatment, perhaps because they think they are doing something wrong. As a result, migraine, which ranks among the leading neurological conditions that diminish quality of life and is treatable, will remain untreated in tens of millions of Americans each year. What is the cost of so many people not getting the treatment they need?
When One Person Waits, We All Lose
I think about time a lot. In sales, I often remind teams that each week represents about two percent of a year. It’s a simple way to make time tangible, because when time is lost, opportunity is lost. Recently, I’ve been reflecting on that same idea but in a very different context: the time and opportunity lost due to delayed diagnosis.
For migraine, time lost matters because it means that people are going without treatment, which exists and can reduce, stop, or soften attacks. But migraine is a chronic and multifactorial condition. No single therapy works for everyone. Finding the right treatment for each person takes time. However, this process can be shortened as more people are treated. Each case, in a sense, teaches us how to help the next.
The Bigger Point: Delay Does Not Only Hurt Today, It Slows Tomorrow
When millions go undiagnosed or untreated, the wider impact extends beyond individual suffering. Delayed diagnosis means that clinically validated treatments remain unused, diminishing the value of public and private funds invested in their development.
It also means research insights aren’t applied at scale. Real-world learning slows down because it takes longer to identify which treatments work best for different people.
In other words, when people go undiagnosed, we restrict both current care and future innovation.
The Opportunity in Front of Us
This is where AI-supported symptom assessment can fill the gap. Tools like Ada are explainable, clinically validated, free to use, and completely private, which is especially important when someone feels stigma around their symptoms. These tools help millions understand what their symptoms might mean and reach the right care earlier.
Imagine even a fraction of the twenty million Americans with untreated migraine being diagnosed and guided. The impact would be immediate and measurable.
- A 40-year-old experiencing migraines for four weeks each year could see an 8% improvement in quality of life by reclaiming time lost to untreated symptoms.
- At the population level, earlier diagnosis yields more comprehensive real-world data. This data accelerates discovery, helping clinicians in refining which treatments work best, for which patients, and under what conditions.
Diagnosing people earlier with trusted, scalable artificial intelligence and connecting them to care would be both a public health victory and an innovation accelerator. Most importantly, any treatment costs would be outweighed by the health benefits.
A Future Built on Progress, Not Delay
We do not aim for a static world. We pursue progress, longer lives, better health, and maybe even flying cars someday. For many conditions affecting tens of millions, we don’t necessarily need new treatments to make progress. We need to help people get the right diagnosis so they can access the options that already exist.
Here are a few actual quotes from Ada users on the Google Play store:
“Diagnosed my migraines and even noted symptoms I did not know were related, like muscle jerking and involuntary eye movements. I was afraid I had a brain tumor.”
“I did not know I suffered from migraines, and the report I received helped me because all my symptoms matched. I followed the advice and went to the doctor, and he confirmed it.”
“This app is really good and so accurate. I had headaches, and Ada identified migraine. I then went to the doctor, and he found exactly the same thing.”
This is the promise of widely accessible and explainable AI in healthcare. It means more effective treatment today for those who need it and faster innovation tomorrow for everyone.
If you’re exploring how AI can help accelerate diagnosis and shorten time-to-treatment connect with me here on LinkedIn or visit about.ada.com.