NEW YORK, March 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- March 28, 2023 – Sword Health, the world’s fastest-growing platform for treating pain, today announced Predict, the first AI engine using advanced machine learning to identify members who are up to 40x more likely to have surgery, more than 8 months before a decision has been made to operate, to help them avoid unnecessary and costly hip, knee, and back surgeries.
With Predict, Sword can utilize a wide range of healthcare and demographic data to identify, engage and treat members who are at-risk for needing surgery with digital physical therapy, which is proven to reduce surgery intent by 60 percent. Predict will dramatically change how companies – including health plans, employers and labor unions – not only avoid costly surgeries and related impacts, such as time off work, but also enable healthy, pain-free living without invasive surgeries and fears surrounding resulting opioid usage.
“AI-powered surgery prevention is a major step forward in our mission to solve pain and reduce costs throughout the system,” said Virgilio Bento, founder and chief executive officer, Sword Health. “In this economic climate of cost efficiency, helping people avoid surgery while reducing costs for employers and plans is the ultimate win-win. Sword has built an end-to-end solution to help more people live pain-free by starting with less invasive and less expensive therapies.”
“We are in an epidemic of unnecessary surgery, even though we know that surgery is often not the best way to treat back, knee, and other musculoskeletal pain,” said Dr. Vijay Yanamadala, chief medical officer, Sword Health. “Predict will provide critical risk-scoring technology in order to better help members who are at-risk for an unnecessary surgery and then guide them through a customized treatment plan that avoids these invasive procedures.”
Specifically, Sword Predict:
- DETECTS: Proprietary technology assigns individual risk scores, classifying members based on the probability of an orthopedic or spine surgery. Innovating on traditional claims analysis, Predict uses more data points, especially those focused on early signals of a future potential surgery.
- ENGAGES: Once identified, Sword’s clinical team reaches out to members and offers opportunities for less invasive, more effective means of therapy. Sword’s personalized programming and support provides individuals a chance to recover when and where it’s most convenient to them.
- SUPPORTS: Sword’s “at-risk” member program includes on-demand access to digital therapists and clinicians. Additionally, the program leverages behavioral science techniques, including positive psychology, intrinsic motivation, loss aversion, and planning prompts to boost member outcomes and performance when tailored to member insights.
Sword Health will offer Predict as an optional, clinical-grade service and will adhere to industry standards to protect employee and health plan member privacy.
For more information on Sword Health and Predict, which will be available in August 2023, visit www.swordhealth.com.
About Sword Health
Sword Health is on a mission to free two billion people from pain as the first and only end-to-end platform to prevent, manage, and treat pain while saving clients millions in healthcare costs. Sword combines proprietary artificial intelligence with rigorous clinical expertise to achieve a 60% reduction in surgery intent and an engagement rate of 3x traditional physical therapy. Today, Sword is the leading patent-holder in digital solutions addressing physical pain and serves more than 1,300 employers and health plans across three continents, including many Fortune 500 companies. With more than $300 million raised from top venture firms like Bond, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures, and a $2 billion valuation, Sword was recently recognized as a Forbes Best Startup Employer, and has become the fastest-growing company in the category since its founding in 2015. To learn more, visit www.SwordHealth.com.
