Sword Health unveiled an artificial intelligence platform designed to reduce unecessary spine and orthopedic surgeries.
Predict is an AI platform that uses machine learning to identify members who are up to 40 times more likely to have surgery more than eight months before operating decisions are made, Sword Health said in a news release. It uses a range of healthcare and demographic data to reduce surgery intent by 60 percent.
"We are in an epidemic of unnecessary surgery, even though we know that surgery is often not the best way to treat back, knee and other musculoskeletal pain," Sword Health's Chief Medical Officer Vijay Yanamadala, MD, said in the release. "Predict will provide critical risk-scoring technology in order to better help members who are at-risk for an unnecessary surgery and then guide them through a customized treatment plan that avoids these invasive procedures."