With a background in physiotherapy and premium healthcare, Peter Grinbergs has always been curious about how technology could disrupt the health sector. Seeing firsthand how patients often struggled with the management of muscle and joint problems, he co-founded EQL to force the health sector to rethink how patients accessed musculoskeletal care.

Alongside co-founder and CEO Jason Ward and Head of Operations Samantha Medcraft, Grinbergs acts as Chief Medical Officer at EQL. The trio founded the UK-based health tech startup to empower patients with tools to help them access premium musculoskeletal (MSK) care.

“Traditional care models tend to be slow, inconsistent, and costly - nevermind the long wait times. Patients may also have to contend with high rates of overtreatment, unnecessary interventions, or limited access to services depending on their postal code,” he adds.

“We saw an opportunity to build an AI-enhanced solution that really puts the control back in the hands of the patient. By delivering faster access to healthcare, we free up time for clinicians, enabling them to focus more on patients. Ultimately, we want to ensure this expert MSK care is available to anyone, anywhere, and at any time.”

Leveraging AI technology for enhanced MSK care

EQL leverages AI to better understand the types of personalized care suitable for patients when trying to prevent or mitigate injuries. For example, chatbots are used to help drive patient interactions, and deliver more personalized content.

To support users and stakeholders across the healthcare landscape, the team at EQL developed an AI-enhanced app, Phio. Billed as a “virtual partner in MSK health,” the Phio app empowers patients to find the right MSK care faster. Phio Access is a triage tool for patients, enabling them to be signposted to the most appropriate care setting. Whilst Phio Engage helps patients manage their MSK care on their own terms whilst also allowing remote monitoring by clinicians to support them throughout their recovery.

EQL is also developing digital twin technology, which uses virtual replicas of patients that are constantly updated with world data. This allows for more accurate care predictions and personalized treatment plans.

“We are excited about the concept of digital twins which is something currently in R&D. With this advancement, we can predict with more certainty the types of support or interventions patients might need based on their kind of phenotype created using a twin model,” Peter says.

Committed to solving real-world problems for patients, the EQL founders discovered the most practical solutions are often powered by AI. “We realised that AI was a great way to analyze data at scale and get useful insights to improve the front-end user journey whilst effectively managing patient care,” Peter says.

EQL intends to leverage Vertex AI Agent Builder to design a digital twin environment capable of evaluating and modelling data to identify optimal care strategies. “Ultimately, we aim to establish an agentic ecosystem that not only plans and delivers personalised care, but also supports simulated environments for secure research and testing, further advancing our personalised approach to healthcare,” Grinbergs added.

A comprehensive tech stack that delivers results

EQL’s tech stack extends to a Google suite of technologies including Google Cloud, Firestore, Vertex, Google Fit API and Big Query.

“We're using Google Cloud for everything behind the scenes. Firebase is our go-to database; super fast and keeps everything up-to-date. Vertex AI is where we build our AI models and for the Phio app itself, we're building with Flutter so it runs smoothly on any device. We're also hooking into Google Fit for patient health tracking and BigQuery is great for when we really need to dive into the data,” says Grinbergs.

EQL also uses Med-PaLM, a large medical language model which harnesses the power of Google’s large language models. “Right now, with MedLM and Med-PaLM, we're building a prototype that lets patients input whatever they need. With these AI models, we can recall what’s already been asked and feed that into our system. This means quicker digital conversations and an improved user experience,” Peter said.

Joining the Google for Startups Growth Academy: AI for Health program helped the EQL team develop their business offering and accelerate growth. “The technical mentorship and strategic guidance was super helpful. We learned a lot about building AI infrastructure and got advice on our clinical system and new models like MedLM and Med-PaLM. Our participation also made us more visible, leading to bigger research, funding, and partnership possibilities,” Grinbergs says.

Transforming MSK care and supporting NHS services

In the future, EQL plans on expanding their core AI technology into adjacent health domains and into other markets. So far the startup has supported 500,000 MSK patients, with goals to continuously increase that figure.

“We see people's pain reducing rapidly over the first four to six weeks as a result of them accessing our supported self-management solution. Our users have said that our Phio technology has been life-changing, giving them the unique ability to manage their conditions themselves,” Grinbergs says.