What You Should Know:
– IncludeHealth, a digital musculoskeletal (MSK) health company, today announced a partnership with Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) to transform care for patients with musculoskeletal health conditions.
– The partnership aims to deliver a best-in-class hybrid MSK care model for all YNHHS patients. The care model combines Yale New Haven Health’s world-renowned in-person orthopedic services with IncludeHealth’s Musculoskeletal Operating System (MSK-OS™) to deliver virtual physical therapy in patients’ homes.
Cloud-Based Digital Platform To Provide Musculoskeletal Care in Patients’ Homes
MSK-OS™ is a HIPAA compliant cloud-based digital platform. Clinicians have real-time access to each patient’s objective, measured movement data, giving them the ability to track and manage patients beyond the clinic. The platform also supports synchronous and asynchronous patient-clinician interaction so that adjustments can be made to a patient’s care plan at any time.
The MSK-OS™ is a hardware-free, device-agnostic platform combining the most accessible, measurable body tracking technology with proprietary clinical intelligence and tools to transform virtual MSK care delivery. This platform allows YNHHS clinicians to offer patients an interactive virtual home exercise program to supplement in-person services, with patient progress monitored and care plans adjusted remotely. This hybrid model is a first of its kind in the industry and is applicable to a wide range of patients, including those undergoing surgery, suffering from chronic pain and those engaging in outpatient physical therapy.
The partnership kicked off in early 2022 at Yale New Haven Hospital with clinicians and patients. Both parties are excited for the potential to scale this model across the health system in the future. IncludeHealth built its MSK-OS platform in collaboration with Google and early clinical partners who helped test and refine the model. Throughout 2021-22, the technology has been deployed in a wide range of clinical settings with physical therapy, orthopedics and health systems partners. With an intuitive interface that supports full body treatment and a tailored approach to clinical workflow integration, the platform is easy to use for frontline clinicians and patients. Clinicians can prescribe a plan in ‘one-click’ and patients can engage in their care at home using any device with a front-facing camera.
Compared to virtual-only MSK solutions which have become popular recently, this model allows a patient’s trusted clinical team to decide how and when to incorporate virtual care as part of the treatment plan. Such a model ensures that proper clinical judgement is exercised when prescribing virtual care and includes close interval follow up from the doctor and therapist to ensure it is effective and safe.
“We are grateful to partner with such a well-respected clinical organization as Yale New Haven Health,” says Ryan Eder, CEO of IncludeHealth. “We are strong believers in a hybrid model of care, putting our technology in the hands of a patient’s trusted provider to strengthen the patient-clinician relationship. We look forward to the impact this will have on patient access and outcomes.”
