getUBetter

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getUBetter

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NHS problem

Common MSK conditions such as back pain have a massive impact on patients, the NHS, the workplace and the economy.

  • 20 – 30% of population will visit a GP every year for an MSK complaint
  • MSK injuries and conditions account for 14-18% of all GP appointments
  • A growing number of people on waiting lists remain unsupported
  • The NHS spends £5 billion treating these conditions every year – 20% of this is overtreatment
  • MSK complaints account for half of all days off work and cost the economy £7 billion every year

Solution

getUBetter is an evidence-based, CE marked digital self-management support platform for all common musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions and women’s pelvic health (WPH). getUBetter now supports 40% of the NHS in England. The platform is available across 17 integrated care systems (ICSs) to a total eligible population of over 20 million people.

getUBetter helps ICSs to support self-management across their entire care partway. It helps patients to trust their recovery, effectively self-manage and utilise less healthcare resource.  getUBetter enables patients to self-manage their recovery by following a recovery and prevention pathway defined by their local healthcare provider.  It supports patients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, taking them through their recovery day-by-day and providing them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to self-manage.  Support is provided through triage, advice and guidance, exercises, outcome measures, safety netting and referral when necessary.

The getUBetter digital self-management pathways are made available to people wherever they connect with the health system – in the community, primary or secondary care, e.g., GP practice, urgent care, pharmacy, or physiotherapy. The digital self-management support is suitable for 80% of all new, recurrent, or long-term conditions, and including people on waiting lists. The platform has been proven to reduce the need for prescriptions, follow-up appointments, referrals, and physiotherapy waiting lists, therefore helping to reduce inefficiencies and costs to the healthcare system.

getUBetter has recently been approved by NICE for use in the NHS for non-specific low back pain. It has been evaluated at level 3 of the NICE Digital Health Technology Evaluation Framework, is the highest scoring MSK app on the ORCHA app library (91%) and has an independent economic evaluation which demonstrates a cost saving of up to £1,960,000 for back pain alone per area (place) of an ICS (pop. 330,000). In the last three years, getUBetter has grown from supporting two ICSs to 17, enhanced the scope of their MSK offering and developed a new digital self-management support package for women’s pelvic health.

Impact:

  • 20% less physiotherapy referrals
  • 13% less MSK GP appointments
  • 50% less MSK prescriptions
  • 66% less Urgent Care attendances
  • Supports behaviour change (Berry et al. 2020, 2022)
  • 50% of patients on a physiotherapy waiting list no longer needed an appointment (Somerset evaluation 2022)
  • 40% fewer physiotherapy appointments

In the last three years, getUBetter has grown from supporting two ICSs to 17 and has seen a five-fold increase in the size of its team. The company has enhanced the scope of their offering, further personalising their MSK digital self-management support for users, supporting people on waiting lists, their elective recovery and return to work, as well as developing a new core package: digital self-management support for women’s pelvic health. getUBetter is now available across 40% of the country, covering an eligible population of 20+ million people, including 80% of London.

In 2023, getUBetter’s collaboration with South West London Integrated Care System won the HealthTech Partnership of the Year at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2023, recognising their outstanding dedication to improving healthcare and effective collaboration with the NHS.