Joint Academy's programme to help millions with back pain

Joint Academy, a Swedish digital therapeutics company, has launched a new programme to help people in the UK with chronic back pain, which could help alleviate pressure on the NHS. 

It’s estimated that 10 million people in the UK suffer from persistent back pain, costing the UK economy almost £12 billion each year, and resulting in over 30 million working days lost each year. 

Joint Academy’s digital treatment connects patients to a registered physiotherapist who builds a tailored programme through the app. This consists of daily exercises, demonstrated through videos, tools to track progress, and patient education on their condition. The exercises take up to 10 minutes to complete and don't require any technical equipment.

Patients also have access to their own personal physiotherapist through video calls. 

The new digital treatment is available through the Joint Academy app, based on extensive research that shows that physiotherapy reduces back pain and the risk of pain getting worse, likely by strengthening the local muscles. According to studies, patients in the Joint Academy back programme lower their pain by as much as 40% after just ten weeks in the treatment.

Asif Dewan, UK Managing Director at Joint Academy, said, “For those experiencing chronic back pain it can have a hugely negative effect on daily life. Millions of people are suffering from it but it’s typically considered a non-urgent condition. But back pain is the leading cause of disability in the UK and results in millions of working days lost every single year. 

"If we can help even a fraction of these patients, we can alleviate some of the pressure on the NHS, reduce the reliance on pain medication and help everyone from insurers and employers to make a real change in people’s lives.”

Joint Academy was founded in Sweden in 2014 by father and son, Dr Leif Dahlberg and Jakob Dahlberg. Leif Dahlberg is a professor in orthopaedics and has more than 35 years of experience of research in cartilage and joints and has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies. As a computer science student, Jakob saw an opportunity to scale Leif’s leading research into osteoarthritis and chronic joint pain to help more people around the world. 

To date Joint Academy has treated over 70,000 patients across its knee and hip programmes, and launched in the UK market last year.