Hurtl
A condition-specific symptom tracker for rheumatic diseases with shareable clinic-ready reports.
Tagline
Turn flares into clinic-ready proof
Bring your rheumatologist a better 3-month picture
Replace memory with real symptom evidence
Patient-owned tracking for inflammatory arthritis
The clinic-prep app for inflammatory arthritis, built around real rheumatology conversations.
The page repeatedly emphasizes appointment preparation, BASDAI, flares, and PDF export. This is stronger than generic 'health tracking' because it anchors the value in the exact workflow patients face before seeing a rheumatologist.
An alternative to paper pain diaries and memory-based symptom recall.
The founder story directly says he started with a pain diary because BASDAI relied on memory, and Hurtl was created to replace that with structured logs, charts, and reports. This is the most credible contrast point on the page.
The patient-owned rheumatic condition log that turns scattered symptoms into evidence.
The strongest benefit is not just tracking; it's evidence packaging. Heatmaps, calculated scores, adherence, and PDF exports turn day-to-day inputs into something a clinician can actually use in a visit.
Primary user
Adults living with axial spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriatic arthritis who need to prepare for rheumatology appointments
ICP #1
Recently diagnosed ankylosing spondylitis patient in their 20s-40s juggling work and recurrent flares
Pain
They can remember the last two bad days, but not the six-month pattern their rheumatologist asks about, so clinic conversations are fuzzy and stressful.
Why this solves
Hurtl was explicitly built from the founder's own BASDAI frustration and gives this user a daily log, trend charts, flare history, and a PDF they can bring to appointments instead of reconstructing symptoms from memory.
ICP #2
Established rheumatoid arthritis patient on a changing treatment plan who tracks morning stiffness and joint pain inconsistently
Pain
They struggle to connect symptoms with medication timing, flare days, and adherence, which makes it hard to explain whether treatment is working.
Why this solves
Hurtl lets them log joint symptoms, morning stiffness, meds, and notes over time, then surfaces trends and adherence so they can show a more coherent picture to their rheumatologist.
ICP #3
Psoriatic arthritis patient with overlapping joint, skin, and enthesis symptoms who feels unheard between visits
Pain
Their symptoms shift across body systems, and they need a way to capture the full picture when one-off appointment notes miss the variability.
Why this solves
Hurtl's condition-specific tracking, custom fields, heatmaps, and exportable summaries make it easier to document multi-signal flares in one place and hand over a concise report.
Strengths
- +The page is unusually specific about disease context: axSpA, RA, and PsA are named throughout, along with BASDAI, RAPID3, and DAPSA.
- +The PDF export workflow is concrete and compelling for a high-friction medical use case; it clearly shows how the app is used before an appointment.
- +The founder story is credible and emotionally grounded, which matters a lot in patient health products.
Weaknesses
- −The homepage still leads with a broad, somewhat generic promise instead of the strongest job-to-be-done: preparing for rheumatology appointments with better evidence.
- −It doesn’t clearly explain the exact onboarding flow or how quickly a new user can get value in the first 5 minutes.
- −The distinction between what Hurtl calculates versus what the rheumatologist should calculate is a little muddy; the copy hints at it, but a user may still be unsure.
- −The landing page has too many repeated sections that say similar things in different words, which dilutes urgency.
- −There is no visible proof of trust beyond privacy promises - no testimonials, clinician endorsement, or example of a before/after appointment outcome.
Fix these
- Reframe the hero around appointment prep: 'Bring your rheumatologist a BASDAI-ready PDF from the last 3 months.'
- Add a short 'How it works in 30 seconds' section with 3 steps: log symptoms, spot patterns, export report.
- Show a sample report with annotations explaining what a clinician can quickly learn from it, especially flare frequency and adherence.
- Create separate landing-page variants for axSpA, RA, and PsA with disease-specific copy and screenshots.
- Add trust builders: clinician quotes, patient testimonials, and a clear explanation of what data stays on-device until export.
Drop-in replacement copy
Headline
Bring proof to rheumatology
Track axSpA, RA, or PsA symptoms and export a clinic-ready PDF.
Show your doctor the real pattern
Log the symptoms that matter for inflammatory arthritis, then see trends, heatmaps, and flare history over time. No more trying to reconstruct three months from memory the night before an appointment.
Track the condition you actually have
Hurtl is built for axSpA, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis, with tailored fields and scores for each. That means less generic health app clutter and more useful signals.
Know whether medication is helping
Track doses, reminders, and adherence alongside symptoms so you can spot timing patterns. It gives you a clearer picture of what’s changing between visits.
Export a report your clinic can scan fast
Turn your logs into a PDF with charts, scores, and notes you can share with a rheumatologist, GP, or family member. The goal is simple: make the appointment easier to prepare for.
FAQ
Is Hurtl a replacement for my rheumatologist?
No. Hurtl is a patient companion for tracking symptoms and preparing for visits. Your doctor still decides on diagnosis, treatment, and clinical scoring.
What conditions does it support?
Hurtl is designed for axial spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis. The tracking fields and reports are tailored to those workflows.
How fast can I get value from it?
Most people can start logging in a few minutes and have a useful picture within days. The first value is getting the right symptoms into one place instead of scattered notes.
Can I share my data with my doctor?
Yes. You can export a PDF report that summarizes symptoms, trends, medication adherence, and notes for a clinic visit.
What about privacy?
The product is built to be patient-owned and private. Data stays in your account until you choose to export or share it.
Built Hurtl for people with axSpA, RA, and PsA who keep getting asked: “How bad has it been, really?” Log the right symptoms, spot flare patterns, and export a PDF before your rheumatology visit. No more reconstructing 3 months from memory.
Most pain diaries are too generic for inflammatory arthritis. Hurtl tracks the symptoms that actually matter for axSpA, RA, and PsA, then turns them into trends, heatmaps, and clinic-ready reports. Built for the appointment, not just the logbook.
I kept hitting the same wall: rheumatology asks for a pattern, memory gives you two bad days and a guess. So I built Hurtl to make the pattern visible. Daily logs. Flare history. Charts. PDF export. If you live with inflammatory arthritis, I’d love feedback.
For axSpA, RA, and PsA, the problem isn’t not tracking enough. It’s tracking the wrong stuff. Hurtl is condition-specific on purpose: symptoms, medication timing, heatmaps, scores, and a report your clinician can read in 30 seconds.
You get 10 minutes to explain months of symptoms. If you’re relying on memory, you lose detail, timing, and confidence. Hurtl helps you show flare frequency, pain trends, medication adherence, and notes in one PDF.
Inflammatory arthritis is weird like that. A few better mornings can hide a messy month of stiffness, fatigue, and flares. Hurtl shows the full picture so your next appointment is based on data, not vibes.
1. Your symptom trend over weeks and months 2. High-pain days on a heatmap calendar 3. Medication adherence and dose history 4. Notes and flare context 5. A PDF you can send before the appointment That’s the whole point: less guessing.
Open Hurtl. Log your pain, stiffness, fatigue, meds, and notes. Come back tomorrow. A week later, you already have more useful evidence than a memory-based pain diary ever gave you.
They need something that understands axSpA, RA, and PsA. That’s why Hurtl has disease-specific fields, calculated scores, and exportable summaries built around actual rheumatology conversations.
If your doctor can quickly see flare timing, adherence, and symptom patterns, the conversation changes. That’s what Hurtl is for: making the next rheumatology visit easier to prepare for and harder to forget.
Angle: appointment prep for rheumatology patients
I built Hurtl because rheumatology appointments ask a simple question that’s weirdly hard to answer: “How has it really been over the last few months?” If you live with axSpA, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriatic arthritis, you usually know the last flare. You usually remember the worst morning. But you do not remember the full pattern with enough confidence to explain it clearly in a 10-minute visit. That gap matters. So Hurtl is designed around the actual workflow patients face: - log the symptoms that matter for your condition - spot trends and flare patterns over time - track meds and adherence - export a PDF you can bring to clinic The goal is not to replace your rheumatologist. It’s to help you walk into the appointment with evidence instead of a foggy summary from memory. If you’ve ever left a visit thinking, “I should have said that better,” I built this for you.
Angle: from generic health tracking to condition-specific evidence
Most symptom trackers fail because they are too generic. Inflammatory arthritis is not generic. axSpA, RA, and PsA each have different symptoms, different patterns, and different clinic conversations. A tracker that treats all pain the same misses the point. That’s why Hurtl is condition-specific. It focuses on the signals patients actually try to explain: - morning stiffness - joint pain - fatigue - flares - medication timing - context in a private journal Then it turns that history into charts, heatmaps, and a shareable report. The product idea is simple: do not make people rebuild their health story from memory every time they see a clinician. If you’re building in health, specificity is usually the difference between “nice app” and “actually used.” This one had to be specific, because the problem is specific.
Angle: founder story and patient-owned evidence
I started building Hurtl from my own BASDAI frustration. The experience was familiar to a lot of people with inflammatory arthritis: you show up to a rheumatology appointment and get asked to summarize months of symptoms, but the thing you need most is the thing memory is worst at. So I stopped thinking of symptom tracking as journaling. I started thinking of it as evidence. Evidence for: - how often flares happen - what symptoms come with them - whether medication timing lines up with better or worse days - what a clinician should actually see in a short visit Hurtl is my attempt to make that process less stressful and more useful. It is built for patients, but it’s useful because it respects the clinician’s time too. I’d genuinely love feedback from people living with axSpA, RA, or PsA, especially on what would make this more helpful before a visit.
Tagline
Clinic-ready tracking for rheumatic disease
Description
Hurtl helps people with axSpA, RA, and PsA track the symptoms that matter, spot flare patterns, and export PDF reports for rheumatology visits.
Maker's first comment
I built Hurtl after getting frustrated with how hard it was to answer a rheumatology question from memory. When you live with inflammatory arthritis, the useful details are spread across bad mornings, flare days, medication changes, and half-remembered notes in your head or phone. Hurtl started as a personal tool to make that easier. I wanted something condition-specific, not a generic wellness app pretending all pain looks the same. So I built around the actual job: log the right symptoms, see the pattern, and walk into clinic with something concrete. The most useful part has been turning months of history into a PDF a rheumatologist can scan quickly. That’s the core idea here: less guessing, less stress, better appointments. If you have axSpA, RA, or PsA, I’d love to hear what would make the report more useful, what you’d want to track, and what’s still missing from the first version.
Pinned maker comment
I’d love feedback on the clinic report, the disease-specific tracking fields, and whether the onboarding makes it clear how to get value in the first 5 minutes.
Meta
Rheumatology visits are too short.
Hypothesis: adults with axSpA, RA, or PsA want a better way to prepare for appointments than a notes app or memory. Hurtl tracks the right symptoms, shows flare patterns, and exports a PDF you can bring to clinic.
Google Search
Track flares for your next rheumatology visit
Targeting people searching for symptom diaries, BASDAI tracking, RA flare tracking, or psoriatic arthritis logs. Hypothesis: they need a condition-specific tracker that turns months of symptoms into a report clinicians can use.
Reddit Promoted
Generic symptom trackers miss the point.
Targeting people in inflammatory arthritis communities who are already frustrated with memory-based symptom recall. Hypothesis: a tracker built around axSpA, RA, and PsA will get better engagement than a generic health app pitch.
Subreddits
r/ankylosingspondylitis
Share the founder story and ask how people currently prepare for rheumatology visits and BASDAI-style questions.
Rules: Be helpful first, disclose you built the app, avoid medical claims, no drive-by promo.
r/rheumatoid
Ask how people track morning stiffness, medication timing, and flare days between appointments.
Rules: No spam, keep it personal and discussion-led, don’t post sales language.
r/Psoriasis
Focus on the psoriasis-to-PsA overlap and how people document joint, skin, and enthesis symptoms together.
Rules: Respect the sub’s scope, keep it relevant to psoriatic arthritis, not just app marketing.
r/SideProject
Share the build story: niche health product, why generic tracking failed, and what you learned building around a real user workflow.
Rules: Must share build/process details and lessons, not just a launch link.
r/indiehackers
Post a teardown of how a tiny health SaaS can earn trust without a huge audience, plus lessons from shipping a patient tool.
Rules: Focus on founder journey, metrics, product decisions, and lessons over pure promotion.
Communities
Post the story behind the problem, then reply deeply to every comment with product specifics and lessons learned.
Only post when you have a sharp angle like a niche problem or technical build detail; keep it humble and factual.
Join the conversations first, answer questions about tracking and appointment prep, then share Hurtl only when directly relevant.
Founders of HealthTech
Use for feedback on onboarding, trust, and patient engagement. Ask for critique, not signups.
Cold outreach template
Hi {firstName} - I saw {context} and built Hurtl because I kept running into the same problem: clinic visits ask for months of symptom history, but memory is a bad source of truth. It’s a condition-specific tracker for axSpA, RA, and PsA that turns logs into a PDF report for rheumatology visits. Would you be open to trying it and telling me what’s missing?
Product Hunt timing
Launch on Tuesday at 12:01 AM Pacific Time. That gives you a full weekday of visibility, catches US morning traffic, and still overlaps with Europe waking up. It also fits this ICP because patients and caregivers are more likely to browse and share during evening hours after work, while PH momentum is building.
Indie Hackers post ideas
- 01I built a niche health app for inflammatory arthritis instead of a generic symptom tracker
- 02What I learned making a patient-generated PDF report clinicians can actually scan
- 03How to get trust for a health app when you have no brand and no testimonials
Competitor alternatives
Current tone of voice
Calm, empathetic, and patient-centered with a lightly founder-led tone; for example, 'Take control of rheumatic conditions' and 'Don't rely on memory.'
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