The global health system has undergone massive (albeit painstakingly slow) digital transformation. While many areas have benefitted from the impact of technology, many others have been left behind.
At FTV Capital, we look to identify areas of our healthcare system that have been left behind and invest in world-class technology and tech-enabled businesses to modernize and serve them better; we’ve done this in payments, where we invested in VPay to help providers get paid faster and more efficiently; we’ve done it in revenue cycle, where we invested in Health Credit Services to help patients access financing for medical procedures; and the list goes on.
Over the last few years, we’ve identified musculoskeletal (“MSK”) health as a global health epidemic that has quietly become one of the costliest and most pervasive areas of healthcare.
Today, we’re excited to announce a strategic growth investment in VALD, the leading provider of technology and data to modernize MSK health.
The staggering facts: One in two Americans experience MSK pain (think back or joint discomfort). Our population is aging – the share of Americans aged 65 or older has increased by 34% relative to 2012. The World Health Organization recently named back pain the single leading cause of disability in over 160 countries.
All of this translates into huge amounts of spend on unnecessary procedures and incomplete physical therapy (PT) regimens; significant productivity losses with MSK-related employee absenteeism costing employers an estimated $3K annually per employee; and, of course, people living in pain. Despite its massive societal burden, MSK health has progressed slower than similarly sized health problems, and herein lies the opportunity.
Perhaps the biggest issue plaguing MSK health is a lack objectivity. Other areas of healthcare have taken enormous strides to collect objective data upon which to make medical decisions; for instance, radiologists have x-rays and diabetics have glucometers. However, for decades MSK ranges of motion, pain levels, and applications of force have been measured subjectively based on patient reported outcomes. We’ve been making high-stakes decisions (e.g., surgery) on imperfect data.
VALD solves this problem by providing clinicians a core system of record, populated with objective data from its suite of human performance measurement devices and accompanied by industry leading software, workflow, and data, empowering clinicians to make data-driven decisions and improve health outcomes. Over the past 10 years, VALD has accumulated over 54 million MSK health records, an unprecedented, first-of-its-kind dataset that serves as the foundation for its normative benchmarking and AI applications. PTs can now calculate a patient’s exact range of motion and chart its progression pre- and post-surgery. Athletic trainers can compare an athlete’s strength to baseline before a big game and make better return-to-play decisions. Clinicians can leverage millions of datapoints to generate predictions that inform care. Never before has there been an MSK dataset to inform what “good” looks like; until now.
Today VALD is used by thousands of leading organizations, from professional sports teams to physical therapy clinics to military organizations, and it is trailblazing a new, massive market. Led by Laurie Malone and Sam James, VALD has grown into a market-leading company with a global presence, a team of more than 250 people, and a truly special culture that emanates from clients and employees alike (as anyone who knows VALD or has attended VALDCONcan attest).
We believe the market for MSK technology has reached a critical inflection point and will see mass adoption in the years to come. We could not be more excited to partner with Laurie, Sam, and the entire VALD team to accelerate the company’s global expansion, commercialization of its data and AI solutions, and category leadership.
