The Microsoft ScaleUp program is designed for Series A startups and offers access to sales, marketing and technical support. Eligible startups partake in the immersive program at one of our seven global locations followed by ongoing support from a dedicated team of success managers. One of the ScaleUp locations is Microsoft ScaleUp Berlin, where a dedicated team around Managing Director Iskender Dirik twice a year supports a batch of up to 10 startups with coaching, training and technical support. In this blog series we will introduce one of the participating startups from our third batch each Tuesday and Thursday.
SWORD Health is redefining physical rehabilitation through the combination of science-driven therapeutic methods with effective technologies that facilitate dissemination of care. The startup has been founded in 2014 by Virgílio Bento to solve the dependence of current rehabilitation models on specialized human resources.
SWORD Health has developed the digital therapist, a system that combines portable motion trackers and powerful software, shifting healthcare from analog to digital. It uses AI and motion tracking to understand the performance of each patient, providing real-time feedback during treatment, under remote guidance from clinical teams.
This is how André Eiras dos Santos, Chief Operations Officer at SWORD Health, explains to his grandparents what the startup is about: “SWORD Health delivers physical therapy directly at the comfort of your home, cutting off your need to commute to clinical facilities. Our technology will give you real time feedback on your therapeutic exercises performance while a clinical team is remotely monitoring your evolution and contacting you every day.”
Watch the video interview with André Eiras dos Santos, Chief Operations Officer at SWORD Health, to find out more about the startup:
When creating a whole new category for a product and service in an industry with a history of more than 100 years, one has to cope with a lot of challenges: “The biggest challenge is to educate people to disrupt from a legacy model and start a completely new standard of care based on payment per outcomes (value-based care)”, says André Eiras dos Santos. Their aim is to become more than just a tech company, but an integrated digital healthcare provider, ensuring maximum quality to the patient at a high comfort and lower cost. “The ScaleUp program is helping us to connect with several experts to position our company in the market. Disrupting is always hard, but when you have a great network of people that is super experienced, you can quick up your go to market time”, says André Eiras dos Santos.
The startup is currently operating in the US, Canada, Australia and Portugal, and is aiming to expand its global reach in order to redefine the next 50 years of the physical therapy sector everywhere. SWORD Health has been endorsed by the European Commission as one of the most innovative companies in Europe.
