Advancing access and equity for orthopedic patients in Connecticut

August 18, 2023
NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Force Therapeutics, a musculoskeletal digital care management platform, announced today a new collaboration with UConn Health, Connecticut's only public academic medical center, to further enhance orthopedic care access and health equity for musculoskeletal patients.

Force Therapeutics digital care management platform enables strategic initiatives for enhancing engagement of UConn Health patients across its spine, joint, and sports medicine service lines, consolidating point solutions, standardizing patient education and care pathways, and consistently collecting patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs). The platform's interactive educational content, customized goal setting, and direct messaging tools are designed to keep patients engaged in their post-surgery recoveries or non-surgical care pathways.

The Force Therapeutics platform makes the delivery of clinically validated education and remote physical therapy easily accessible to all patients, such as those with socioeconomic barriers or those living in rural areas, to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction while increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

"We are delighted to team up with UConn Health to support its exceptional holistic approach to orthopedic care with remote monitoring capabilities and digital education tools," said Bronwyn Spira, CEO, Force Therapeutics. "UConn Health is engaging patients in their own care and making care delivery more efficient for care teams, while ensuring high-quality patient care outcomes."

UConn Health is an integrated academic medical center in Farmington, Conn., with a tripartite mission of excellence in academics, research, and clinical care.

"As a mission-driven, public-service-based state agency, UConn Health strives to make significant contributions to the improvement of the health of Connecticut citizens, particularly in underserved communities," said Isaac Moss, MD, Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UConn Health. "Extending a comprehensive digital care platform to our patients in their homes will enable us to improve access to care across our communities and help all patients achieve the best possible outcomes while also advancing health equity throughout the state."

By enabling high levels of patient engagement, UConn Health plans to use the data collected via the Force Therapeutics platform to measure multiple discrete data points, such as pain and exercise adherence, which will help inform evidence-based care design and standardization goals. Key performance indicators, such as length of stay, readmissions, and patient safety will give UConn Health insight into macro trends at the procedural, clinician, facility, and population levels for ongoing quality improvement. In addition, UConn Health will be prepared to meet increasingly rigorous reporting requirements by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the collection and reporting of demographic and social determinants of health data, as well as the incorporation of PROs into measuring care performance.

In addition to making care more easily accessible to all patients, UConn Health care teams will have seamless access to the Force Therapeutics platform via direct integration with the health system's Epic electronic health record. Real-time status updates help clinicians monitor patient progress, enabling immediate interventions for patients who require extra education or care plan modification resulting in fewer avoidable emergency department visits and readmissions. Furthermore, workflow automation relieves care teams from burdensome repetitive tasks, reducing burnout and freeing more time for high-value patient interactions.


About Force Therapeutics
Force Therapeutics is a musculoskeletal digital care management platform designed to help clinicians effectively manage patients' rehabilitation and recovery remotely using evidence-based care pathways. The platform leverages video and digital connections to directly engage patients at every step of the care journey. Backed by millions of clinically validated patient data points and insights from more than 70 leading healthcare centers across the country, Force Therapeutics is proven to reduce care variation, lower overall costs, maximize care team efficiency, and improve patient outcomes and satisfaction.


About UConn Health
UConn Health is Connecticut's only public academic medical center with an annual economic impact of $3.1 billion. Based on a 206-acre campus in Farmington, UConn Health has a three-part mission: research, teaching and patient care. Home to the UConn School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine and UConn John Dempsey Hospital with over 5,400 employees supporting more than 1,000 students, over 1.3 million annual patient encounters, and innovative scientific research contributing to the advancement of medicine. It is Connecticut's No. 1 producer of medical and dental professionals. In fact, UConn is the largest single source of new physicians, surgeons, and dentists for the state. We are also a significant source of trained scientists and public health experts. For more information, visit health.uconn.edu.