Flok Health: Developing a pocket physiotherapist to deliver personalised healthcare at population scale

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Flok is developing a game-changing platform for end-to-end physiotherapy provision, with advanced algorithmic decision-making and ground-breaking responsive video-streamed exercise prescription and pain management. These technologies simulate the experience of a personal physiotherapist, enabling care delivery at population-scale. Patients get immediate access to engaging, completely personalised, gold standard treatment for their back pain, with no waiting lists for GP/physiotherapy appointments.Chronic back pain is the leading cause of disability globally, the number one cause of sick leave and premature exit from the workforce in Europe, with enormous social impact including increased depression risk reduced quality of life. Direct healthcare costs are £12.3bn/year in UK and $135bn/year in US. The profoundly damaging impacts are avoidable with fast access to the right treatment, however current NHS waiting lists are 14+ weeks, during which 20% of patients develop chronic pain. Once seen, demands on the NHS mean patients are typically offered just 1-2 physiotherapy appointments, printouts of generic exercises, no supporting psychological interventions, and no monitoring or treatment adjustments. There is urgent need for better care, and the NHS is set to invest £310m into digital solutions for musculoskeletal care and depression.Flok was co-founded by a former athlete upon realising that where elite athletes can receive immediate, highly personalised care and return to competition within a week, normal patients are waiting months for inadequate treatment, and many are avoidably developing chronic pain. Flok's mission is to put the world's best physiotherapy clinic in the pocket of everyone who needs it.Flok has an initial "digital physiotherapist," tested within the NHS, but the current version can only support a small number of simultaneous users. This project will develop the technology needed to deliver care at population scale, with 10,000s of simultaneous users accessing our responsive physiotherapy, and data-driven automation to improve engagement and outcomes.