The South West has a track record of developing innovation technologies and scaling up to benefit the wider population. GetUBetter, developed in the region, is now one of the leading digital self-management support platforms for MSK health in the UK, benefitting patients, the NHS, the workplace and the economy.
The South West has a track record of developing innovation technologies and scaling up to benefit the wider population. GetUBetter, developed in the region, is now one of the leading digital self-management support platforms for MSK health in the UK, benefitting patients, the NHS, the workplace and the economy.
Twenty to thirty percent of the population will visit a GP every year for an MSK complaint such as back or neck pain, and the NHS spends £5 billion treating these conditions every year. MSK complaints account for half of all days off work and cost the economy £7 billion every year.
As most MSK problems can be managed without specialist treatment, NICE, the NHS, and the Department of Health and Social Care all recommend self-management support.
The getUBetter app is a digital self-management support platform MSK, developed by Dr Carey McClellan at the University of the West of England.
Health Innovation West of England first supported Carey in 2013, very early on in his innovation journey, with support around ownership of his intellectual property. Then in 2015, he secured a place on its Health Innovation Programme, run in partnership with SetSquared. They have continued to support Carey from development through to deployment and scale – connecting him to relevant organisations and helping him to write funding bids, including successful bids for Small Business Research Initiative funding.
The app helps integrated care systems to provide digital-self-management support for commons MSK conditions and women’s pelvic health across their whole care pathway.
It supports patients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, taking them through their recovery day-by-day and providing them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to self-manage. Support is provided through triage, advice, exercises, outcome measures, safety netting and referral when necessary.
The digital self-management pathways are locally configured to each place within a health system and are made available to people wherever they connect with the system – in the community, primary or secondary care, for example GP practice, urgent care, pharmacy, or physiotherapy. The digital self-management support is suitable for 80% of all new, recurrent, or long-term conditions, including people on waiting lists.
The platform has been proven to reduce the need for prescriptions, follow-up appointments, referrals, and physiotherapy waiting lists. This helps to reduce inefficiencies and costs to the healthcare system.
getUBetter has been demonstrated to offer a 4:1 return on investment for providers – for every £1 spent, getUBetter saves £4.20. getUBetter self-management support has also been recommended by NICE for use in the NHS.
In the last two years, getUBetter has grown from supporting two Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to 17, enhanced the scope of their MSK offering and developed a new digital self-management support package for women’s pelvic health.
getUBetter is now available across 38% of the country to a total eligible population of over 20 million. The team aims to further expand the app’s reach, making it available to even more people in the UK.