Eleven NHS organisations, together with three main care networks (PCNs) have deployed musculoskeletal (MSK) triage and rehabilitation expertise Phio.
South Sefton PCN, NHS Orkney, and NHS Shetland are the newest organisations to go dwell with the answer in March 2025, which means that round 2.3 million sufferers now have the choice to start physiotherapy care on their telephone.
The Phio Entry conversational computational evaluation, constructed by EQL, asks the affected person adaptive questions drawn from a decision-tree library protecting greater than 3,000 MSK situations.
Customers are then signposted to probably the most applicable care pathway, similar to pressing care, a physiotherapy appointment, or managing their situation remotely.
Sarah Laing, govt lead at East Staffordshire PCN, which deployed the answer in January 2025, mentioned: “We have now adopted an thrilling new physiotherapy service, Phio, to alleviate the massive stress on our GPs and supply higher entry to physiotherapy for all our grownup sufferers in our catchment space.
“We built-in the expertise rapidly in only some weeks, and our service is already seeing early advantages.
“With rising strains and financial pressures throughout the UK, it’s crucial we combine AI and expertise options as rapidly as we are able to, particularly at a main care community stage.”
Phio Interact is a companion smartphone app that delivers evidence-based train programmes, 24/7 entry to clinicians through a messaging interface and a dashboard that tracks progress and ache scores, in order that clinicians can step in if a affected person’s restoration stalls.
The Phio service can also be dwell at NHS Highland Argyll and Bute; NHS North Highland; Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Belief; Walsall Healthcare NHS Belief; NHS Borders; Your Well being Partnership PCN and NHS Lanarkshire.
Outcomes reported from Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Belief present that ready instances fell by eight weeks and greater than 1,200 medical hours have been reallocated to complicated instances.
Mick Thacker, professor of ache and head of R&D at EQL, mentioned: “Confronted with a nationwide MSK ache pandemic, we’ve got to widen the entrance door to care and make the most effective use of AI and expertise.
“MSK ache is a societal subject, negatively impacting each the person, their carers and family members, in addition to employment and social well-being.
“Digital triage backed by good analytics and personalised care is the one life like approach to preserve Britain’s inhabitants wholesome whereas defending human face-to-face companies for the individuals who want them most.
“Digital approaches naturally help efficient self-management, empowering the individual to take management of their very own situation.”
In the meantime, in January 2025 NHS Lothian in Scotland made AI-powered physiotherapy clinic Flok Well being out there to almost a million sufferers throughout the Lothian area as a part of a large-scale pilot.
