Latest News
Emory Spine Center trials Sword to improve back pain care
From our earliest years, Sword Health’s founders chose not to go to market until we were clinically assured that our virtual approach to physical therapy was demonstrably more effective than gold-standard conventional physical therapy. As we’ve honed our technology and treatments to serve patients with acute, post-operative, and chronic pain, we’ve invested the time and research to ensure we have the best clinical evidence on our side. We’re thrilled to announce a clinical study with the renowned Emory Spine Center, ranked among the top in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, where we’ll quantify our progress against low back pain, the monster MSK disorder that burdens 568 million people. As we undergo this study with Emory Spine Center and SWORD Health’s MSK solution for chronic and low back pain, we anticipate life-changing outcomes, and look forward to the evidence that this partnership will provide. The impact of early retirement on both direct healthcare costs and indirect is massive: between 1996 and 2016, healthcare spending in the United States soared from $1.4 trillion to around $3 trillion. According to the Global Burden of Disease, studies show that this number continues to trend upward, most rapidly in low- and middle-income countries. At SWORD Health, we’re no stranger to the absenteeism and productivity loss our manufacturing and labor-heavy clients have faced. And this problem is not only devastating to the employer’s workforce: it balloons their benefit expenses.
July 7, 2021 • 4 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword Health raises $85M in Series C funding
As the fastest growing virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care provider, we're thrilled to announce an $85M Series C funding round. This news follows our $25 million Series B in January, bringing the company’s total to $135M in funding to-date. The newest Series C round was led by General Catalyst with participation from BOND, Highmark Ventures, and BPEA, along with returning investors Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Transformation Capital, and Green Innovations.
June 29, 2021 • 5 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Why Sword Health's AI care is different from other pain solutions
As Sword Health’s Chief Medical Officer and member of the company’s founding team, this is a question I get asked quite often. It is, perhaps, the most fundamental question to ask. Ultimately, what a company believes is what a company becomes. At Sword, our mission is ambitious but simple: we want to free people from musculoskeletal pain and suffering. This clear vision is what guides us relentlessly towards achieving this goal. When we were laying Sword’s foundations, we knew that the need was not only immense but growing. An analysis of the Burden of Disease Study revealed that 2.41 billion people are in need of rehabilitation, 70% due to musculoskeletal disorders. At the same time, human resources are scarce, expensive, and not scalable. We knew, therefore, that leveraging innovative digital technology was the only way forward. But we also knew that any technology that relied exclusively on real-time interaction between healthcare practitioners and patients was bound to fail - at best, it solves part of the problem on the patient end (avoiding commuting to and from appointments), but does not scale the clinician's ability to treat more patients.
March 3, 2021 • 7 min read
Dr. Fernando Correia, M.D.
Sword Health raises $25M in Series B funding
The company’s funding doubled to $50 million after a year of rapid growth. Sword Health, the world’s fastest growing virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care provider, has raised a $25 million financing round, bringing Sword’s cumulative fundraising to $50 million. The round was led by Todd Cozzens, Managing Partner at Transformation Capital and former healthcare investor at Sequoia Capital. Existing investors Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Green Innovations, Vesalius Biocapital and Faber also participated. Sword Health achieved significant commercial success in the last year with eight-fold revenue growth and a nearly five-fold increase in active users in 2020, making it one of the fastest growing providers of virtual musculoskeletal care delivery. The Company will use the funds to enhance product capabilities, expand industry partnerships and drive adoption across the benefits management ecosystem with employers, health plans and alliance partners.
February 1, 2021 • 4 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
2020: Sword Health’s Year in Review
2020 was a big year in digital health. With a pandemic disrupting every corner of the globe, American employers and health plans were forced to accelerate the shift to digital solutions that had been growing in the U.S. for several years. For Sword Health, 2020 was an opportunity to establish ourselves as a new leader in the digital musculoskeletal (MSK) market in America, and we’re proud to say that we did that, and much more. Here are some of our highlights from 2020... We unveiled Sword to the US market in January 2020, merely weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the nation. As with all companies, we have had to adapt to this new reality.
January 19, 2021 • 6 min read
Sword Editorial Team
Sword Health is the fastest-growing MSK solution
The company saw eight-fold revenue growth and delivered more than 2 million minutes of physical therapy in 2020. As physical pain skyrockets from long days at the home office, demand for virtual solutions to musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is booming. A survey by Business Group on Health found 71 percent of large employers accelerated telehealth and virtual care offerings for their employees, while 52 percent made the implementation of more virtual care solutions their top priority for 2021. Virtual MSK care has seen the largest growth over the last year and is expected to see exponential growth in the years to come. Sword Health, a virtual MSK care provider, has quickly gained traction in the market, leading to exponential growth over the last year with eight-fold revenue growth and a nearly five-fold increase in active users in 2020.
January 7, 2021 • 3 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword partners with BridgeHealth to deliver premium-quality MSK care
The partnership will both prevent unnecessary procedures and provide a continuum of excellent care before and after surgery. Today, Sword Health is partnering with BridgeHealth, a company that provides surgical advocacy, guidance, and Centers of Excellence (COE) programs to employees at large, self-insured companies. BridgeHealth improves employers’ access to medical COEs, so their members can get the highest quality surgical care for their condition regardless of insurance limitations and without excessive financial burdens. Physical therapy is the most effective solution for most musculoskeletal issues, but patients are often either unaware of noninvasive treatment methods or have limited access to physical therapy due to cost, inconvenience or other constraints. The partnership between SWORD Health and BridgeHealth offers surgical candidates the highest quality end-to-end care. BridgeHealth members can access Sword Health’s virtual physical therapy programs as a preventative measure before they choose to elect surgery. They also have access to clinical-grade prehabilitation programs to help prepare them for surgery, as well as post-surgical rehabilitation programs to speed up their recovery.
December 18, 2020 • 3 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword health recognized as a top 3 wellness service on Inc.’s Best in Business list
Sword Health joins the ranks of Calm, sweetgreen, Bombas and other innovators making a positive impact on the world. Sword Health has been named to Inc.’s inaugural Best in Business list in the Wellness Services category. Inc. created the Best in Business Awards to honor companies that have gone above and beyond to make a positive difference. The list, which can be found in the Winter issue of Inc. ( December 29, 2020 issue), recognizes small- and medium-size privately held American businesses that have had a superlative impact on their communities, their industries, the environment, or society as a whole.
December 3, 2020 • 3 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword Health achieves HITRUST, SOC 2 & FDA certification
Sword Health, a leading provider of digital musculoskeletal (MSK) care, today announced Sword Health’s digital therapy platform and several of its applications have earned Certified status for information security by HITRUST. The company also completed its Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 examination with zero exceptions. The independent audit confirmed Sword Health’s digital therapy platform meets the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Trust Service Principles and Criteria for System and Organization Control. These achievements, coupled with Sword Health’s FDA-listed class II medical device, distinguish Sword Health as the most certified and secure digital provider of MSK care in the United States.
August 13, 2020 • 2 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Why Sword Health is launching a new movement to free the world from pain
Pain impacts more than 2 billion people across the world. That’s more than one-third of the global population struggling with acute and chronic conditions, pre-and-post operative discomfort, and untreated injuries. And that’s just the physical symptoms. Anxiety, depression, fear – when our physical health suffers, so does our mental health. There’s a clear correlation. At this moment, pain is the most widespread epidemic facing the world — and it affects everyone, whether directly or indirectly through a loved one. When we founded Sword Health, we set out to solve a problem that I saw so many people suffering from, my own family included. A problem that scientists and doctors have been trying to solve for the past several hundred years. A problem that’s all-too-often punted to surgery and pills as the solution.
June 30, 2020 • 3 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword Health appoints Brian Marcotte to lead Client Advisory Board
Sword Health, a digital musculoskeletal and pulmonary therapy provider, today announced the appointment of industry paragon Brian Marcotte to lead their Client Advisory Board. Brian is the former President and CEO of Business Group on Health, the leading advocate for large employers in healthcare policy and benefits strategy. At the Business Group, Brian established the Health Innovations Forum, which helped accelerate market traction for promising digital health startups, and the Executive Committee on Value Purchasing, a cross-industry council focused on shifting the market toward value-based pricing and provider accountability. Prior to the Business Group, Brian was the Vice President of Compensation and Benefits for Honeywell International where he implemented innovative solutions to help employees maximize their experience with the healthcare delivery system. “Virtual care is taking off, and COVID-19 is giving it a jump start. We’re seeing an explosion of digital solutions in the MSK space, but Sword stands apart because they provide virtual MSK care at the level of quality that employers, plans and members require,” said Brian. “Sword has the potential to help make physical therapy accessible to millions of people, drastically improving outcomes and reducing unnecessary expenses, and I am excited to bring together the industry’s best to help them do it.”
June 30, 2020 • 3 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword Health appoints Karin Ajmani to Board of Directors
Sword Health, a digital musculoskeletal and pulmonary therapy provider, today announced the appointment of industry luminary Karin Ajmani to their Board of Directors. “Karin is one of the most forward-thinking leaders in the employer-sponsored health space, and we’re thrilled to have her join our Board,” said Virgílio Bento, Founder and CEO, Sword Health. “She will be an exceptional asset to our team.” Karin is a healthcare entrepreneur who has committed her career to building companies that expand access to critical services, while greatly improving the member experience. She served as President and Chief Strategy Officer of Progyny, a national infertility health benefits company, from inception in 2015 through the company’s recent IPO. She developed Progyny’s employer benefits product and was responsible for sales and account management from pre-revenue to serving over 2 million lives and over 80 marquee clients. Prior to joining Progyny, Karin served as CEO of US Imaging, a radiology benefits management company, and CEO of CarePlus Health Plan, where she led the organization from inception through its sale to United Health Plan.
June 23, 2020 • 2 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
Sword now available to Concordia members
Concordia Plan Services, a benefits provider for over 6,000 LCMS organizations worldwide, today announced that they will begin to offer their members access to SWORD Health’s digital therapy programs for musculoskeletal pain. Musculoskeletal conditions, including chronic pain and acute conditions, affect 50% of Americans, and costs for treating them outpace cancer and mental health combined. Most conditions are treatable with a combination of exercise, behavioral coaching and education, but for many Americans, treatment is inaccessible and inconvenient. There are large disparities in both access to care and outcomes based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and geography.
June 17, 2020 • 2 min read
Sword Health Innovation Team
2019: Sword Health's Year in Review
After a 2018 that saw us going from hope to reality, we went through 2019 knowing this was the year for growth. From pushing our clinical validation forward to closing our series A investment round with prominent investors, this year has strengthened the groundwork for us to build the future of musculoskeletal care. And we harnessed every opportunity to deliver on our mission. In 2019, we provided the best care to twice as many patients! This means more and more people were able to follow their physical therapy programs from the comfort of their homes, spending more than 580,000 minutes with our digital therapists while saving more than a million miles of travel back and forth from PT centers.
December 23, 2019 • 4 min read
Sword Editorial Team
Fresh health insights
Ultimate employee benefits guide
Employee benefits aren’t just perks. In 2025, they’re a strategic lever. With rising healthcare costs, increased workforce expectations, and the permanent shift toward hybrid work, your benefits strategy isn’t just a retention tool. If you can offer the best employee benefits in your industry, you send a strong message to potential candidates (and to your existing team members). This demonstrates your company values and your bottom line. A strong employee benefits plan signals care, financial strength, and a commitment to invest in your team. A forward-looking benefits plan is a competitive advantage. It influences recruiting outcomes, impacts employee health and productivity, and shapes how your organization is perceived. We want to help you understand the full landscape of a modern benefits plan including what’s most common, and emerging trends. But what really matters is attracting and retaining top talent. This guide will focus on the most cost-effective benefits to achieve that organizational goal.
October 24, 2025 • 19 min read
Sword Editorial Team
Healthcare cost trends for 2026
Healthcare costs are rising again, and health insurance providers are feeling the pressure. After a brief slowdown at the start of the year across the macro industry, costs have continued to push higher on the back of inflation, new drug therapies, and pent-up utilization. Most benefits leaders already know the headlines, like trend lines above 7 percent and specialty drug spend surging, but what they need now are answers. Not all of this is beyond your control. Healthcare leaders can consider these broader trends to update their plans. This guide will explain the key trends impacting the industry in more detail, but the foundations of cost-effective plans are increasingly built on prevention, digital access, and value-based partnerships that drive measurable ROI. We've pulled together a high-level overview of the key trends shaping the cost basis of healthcare in 2026 and beyond. Read on to find what you need to know about the reasons for these trends, and the practical steps you can take to stay ahead.
October 10, 2025 • 8 min read
Sword Editorial Team
GLP-1 muscle loss: the hidden cost of weight loss without movement
Early indications show the drugs are helping patients lose weight. But as more research and analysis is collected, concern around GLP-1 muscle loss is building. While GLP-1s promote fast weight loss, the type of weight lost matters. Clinical research shows that up to 39% of lean body mass is lost during GLP-1 usage. Lean muscle loss from GLP-1 use presents an invisible but dangerous risk, for health insurers and patients alike. Lean muscle loss isn’t cosmetic. This has serious implications for physical health, mobility, long-term function, and cost exposure. For health plan administrators sarcopenia muscle loss adds nearly $900 in excess healthcare costs per employee annually. Lean muscle is essential. Lose it, and you compromise strength, movement, and future health.
August 22, 2025 • 14 min read
Morgan Hollis, MS, RDN
