The problem

Back pain is common, costly and made worse by waiting

  • 1 in 4working adults have back pain at any given time
  • ~11 millionUK working days lost to back pain each year
  • #1cause of disability worldwide
  • ~14 weeksaverage wait for NHS physiotherapy

Sources: IASP 2025 · ONS / HSE 2024–25 (MySpine.Health estimate) · Global Burden of Disease 2021 · NHS waiting times.

  • Most of it isn’t work-related

    Most back-pain absence is pain people bring to work. It is an occupational health issue, not a RIDDOR one.

  • Presenteeism is the hidden cost

    Many people keep coming in while in pain, working below their best, and it rarely shows up in absence figures.

  • Waiting makes it worse

    Delay turns a 2-week episode into a long-term case.

The pathway

One joined-up pathway, from prevention to specialist care

Six connected steps, so each person gets the right level of help at the right time.

  1. Prevention

    In-house education and awareness

  2. Triage

    Digital and telephone

  3. Assessment

    Assessment and risk stratification

  4. Physiotherapy

    Digital and face to face

  5. Rehabilitation

    A personalised programme

  6. Specialist care

    Consultant, imaging, and surgery if needed

Self-referral on day one, and a physiotherapist within 48 hours. A 2-week episode stays a 2-week episode.

How it works

Simple for employees, useful for employers

Everything runs from the employee’s own phone. There is nothing to install on your systems.

Employees who are well

One question a week

About ten seconds, with relevant tips for their kind of work.

Employees with pain

The right help, quickly

A few gentle, evidence-based questions, with red-flag safety checks first, then the right help quickly.

The employer

A live population dashboard

Musculoskeletal health across your workforce, by site and role.

Privacy

Designed to be trusted

10

The minimum group size before any figure is shown. Smaller groups are never reported, so no one can be singled out.

  • The employer never sees individual responses, unless the employee chooses to share with occupational health.
  • Employees own their information and can delete it at any time.
  • Participation is voluntary.
  • All data is stored and processed in the UK.

Why organisations choose it

Better outcomes for people and for the organisation

  • Lower absence costs

    Earlier help reduces absence costs.

  • Higher productivity

    Catching presenteeism boosts productivity.

  • Self-refer from any phone

    No GP referral needed.

  • No IT integration

    Nothing to connect to your systems.

  • Monthly dashboard

    Usage and improvement, every month.

  • Clinical credibility

    A service your OH team can trust.

  • Equal access

    The same specialist care for every employee.

  • Evidence-based

    Consultant-led, with clinical governance throughout.

The team

Led by clinicians

Mr Dan Wright

Clinical Lead

Consultant Spinal Neurosurgeon.

Dr DJ Hamblin-Brown

Technology Lead

Emergency Physician and former Medical Director; founder of a clinical coordination software business.

Medical Advisory Committee To be confirmed

Specialists in spinal surgery, pain medicine, physiotherapy, general practice and radiology, with a lay patient representative.

Pilot

We’re looking for organisations to partner with us on a pilot.

Here is what a pilot needs from you.

01

A pilot group

200–500 employees, at one site or in one cohort, for 3–6 months. No IT integration.

02

An absence baseline

Anonymised aggregate data only.

03

A named contact

Your HR, OH or wellbeing lead, with a monthly 30-minute check-in.

In return: free pilot access · full outcome report · priority pricing for a full rollout.