Flok Health

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NHS Problem

Back pain is the leading cause of disability in the UK and a top cause of sick leave and early exit from the workforce. 1 in 3 adults will have at least one episode of back pain every year, and half of those people seek medical care for their pain, leading to an enormous level of demand for services. Approximately 1 in 10 primary care appointments in the NHS are now for back pain, and musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy services are seeing such high demand that 3-4 month waiting lists are common. There are currently >300,000 patients on waiting lists for MSK care in England alone, of whom >100,000 have low back pain. Pain often gets worse and more challenging to treat over time, so long wait times have a significant impact on both patients and the NHS in these conditions. MSK conditions are currently the 3rd largest area of NHS spending, with over £5 billion in direct care costs yearly.  

The Solution

MSK conditions like back pain are now the leading cause of disability globally. While patients need fast, frequent access to tailored multidisciplinary care, these conditions are so common that traditional physiotherapy services are overwhelmed, and the gold standard is impossible to deliver at scale.  

To tackle this problem, we have developed an AI physiotherapy clinic – automating the delivery of personalised care at a population scale. Our technology is the first to achieve medical device clearance in the UK for fully automating the triage, assessment, and treatment of back pain, and we are also the only digital MSK provider with CQC approval. 

Impact

The significant levels of automation in our solution, plus our ability to fully manage triage and assessment of self-referred patients, mean that we can guarantee same-day access to care for our patients at scale. Backlogs for community MSK are particularly high following the impact of COVID-19, with >300,000 patients waiting for community MSK physiotherapy in England alone. By managing a proportion of these patients on behalf of their Trust, and avoiding the need for them to have appointments within the core MSK service, we can have a significant potential impact on waiting times and backlog recovery across community MSK services nationally. 

MSK conditions and back pain also account for a huge proportion of demand in non-MSK services, for example in primary care, approximately 1 in 3 GP appointments is for MSK. By providing fast, scalable alternative routes for these patients to receive the best care, we can reduce the burden on primary care, which in turn has a well-evidenced downstream impact on strain across other NHS services. 

Significantly reduced burden on NHS clinical staff by automating the delivery of high-volume routine pathways. Attracting and retaining physiotherapists in NHS services continues to be a problem, partly due to the stresses and strain that these services are continually exposed to. By automating the management of appropriate patient pathways, we can reduce the demands on NHS staff in these services, and allow them to deliver faster, more comprehensive care to those patients that will benefit from it. 

  • 100% compliance with 0-day RTT SLA (ie all patient get same day appointment, 24/7) 
  • 86% patients in service evaluation reported improved symptoms and confidence in managing their back pain going forwards  
  • 57% patients reporting ‘better’ experience than with human/traditional physiotherapy pathway