Sword Health declares Phoenix conversational AI

Pain management startup Sword Health on Tuesday announced a recent artificial intelligence solution named Phoenix that patients can speak with for guidance through virtual physical therapy sessions. 

Sword, founded in 2015, offers digital tools to assist patients manage pain from home and avoid other treatments like opioids and surgery. The corporate has used AI inside its products since its launch, but CEO Virgílio Bento told CNBC that Phoenix offers users a more human-like experience. 

Phoenix is designed to copy the work of a care specialist. Bento said patients should feel like they’ve a physical therapist inside their homes. Patients can talk on to Phoenix about how they’re feeling, and the brand new “specialist” can respond, offer feedback and adjust the problem and duration of the session in real time. 

Sword patients join sessions using a tablet from the corporate that may track their movement. Bento said Phoenix monitors their progress, and after each session, it summarizes their performance data and sends it to certainly one of Sword’s human clinicians for review.  

Bento said Sword’s AI is currently able to investigate movement and supply easy feedback, but Phoenix is more conversational. Phoenix’s ability to investigate patients’ data and generate recommendations also helps the corporate’s clinicians operate more efficiently, Bento added. 

Phoenix will propose changes for the patient’s next session, in addition to a follow-up message in regards to the session they accomplished. Bento said a human clinician decides whether to just accept, reject or edit those recommendations. Sword’s clinicians have authority over what exercises are appropriate for a patient, so Phoenix doesn’t make any decisions independently. 

“That is health care, so that you will all the time need that final approval,” Bento said in an interview. “We’ve strong guardrails when it comes to how we do things.”

Patients can enroll for Sword whether it is supported by their employer or their health plan. Sword has already carried out greater than 3 million AI-powered sessions with patients, in line with a release Tuesday. Bento said the corporate has been focused on business customers but would really like to make its solutions available to everyone.

Sword also said Tuesday it raised $100 million in a secondary sale to supply liquidity to current and former employees and early investors. Bento said the corporate is forecasting that it can be profitable this 12 months, but it surely raised a further $30 million in a primary sale to update its valuation. 

The corporate has raised a complete of $340 million and is valued at $3 billion, in line with the discharge. It was valued at $2 billion in late 2021.     

Sword said a combination of recent and existing investors participated within the round, a few of whom didn’t wish to be named. Enterprise firms like Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and General Catalyst have previously invested in the corporate.

Sword has been testing Phoenix with some patients using its “Thrive” digital physical therapy product. Bento said the corporate will proceed rolling it out to more patients inside Thrive and across its other offerings, including its pelvic health solution called “Bloom,” over the approaching months.