Account Login
Don't have an account? Create One
Emily Johnston [39]
Hometown: Halifax, N.S.
Alma mater: Dalhousie University (BPharm); University of Florida (PharmD)
Headquarters: Halifax, N.S.
Founded: 2022 (incorporated)
Employees: 1 (contracts several technology development consultants)
The founder of Pain Coach is hoping to bring to market a mobile app that teaches patients about non-addictive alternatives to post-surgical pain management
When desperation is the mother of invention
Emily Johnston won’t soon forget how—as she toiled behind the counter of a community pharmacy in downtown Calgary in the late aughts—desperately addicted people robbed the store where she worked four times in two years. “That was when the OxyContin crisis was at its height,” she said. “We had a large clientele receiving therapy for opiate use disorder. I got to know those patients really well. It really made an impact on me.”
Flash forward several years later and Johnston—working as a clinical pharmacist for the Nova Scotia Health Authority—found herself prescribing opiates for people whose stories were, as she said, “eerily similar to those early patients of mine. I began to look at how we are prescribing for pain control, and I just thought: We can do better.”
Continue reading this story: click below to login/subscribe
Login or SubscribeComment policy
Comments are moderated to ensure thoughtful and respectful conversations. First and last names will appear with each submission; anonymous comments and pseudonyms will not be permitted.
By submitting a comment, you accept that Atlantic Business Magazine has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner it chooses. Publication of a comment does not constitute endorsement of that comment. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.