Munich Re Life US, the life division of reinsurance giant Munich Re, has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Sparta Science, aimed at reducing the occurrence of musculoskeletal (MSK) injury claims.
The partnership will allow Munich Re to offer disability insurance carriers in the US and Canada direct access to Sparta Science’s breakthrough Movement Health Platform as part of its insurance advisory services.
Sparta Science’s Movement Health Platform is used to predict risk and provide insights that help prevent functional injury and decline before it leads to disability claims and lost worker productivity.
In a press release, it notes that Sparta Science’s scientific model provides early indicators for the risk of MSK injury in the way that a blood test would identify the risk for diabetes.
Sparta Science’s innovative Movement Health Platform is applied on a rapid and massive scale to provide assessments and insights that help reduce risk. Individualized data is gathered through a two-minute scan using a high-fidelity force plate, which collects over 3000 data points per second. Sparta Cloud, a web application that leverages a database containing millions of assessments tied to thousands of anonymized profiles, applies broad demographic data to objectively quantify risk for the individual.
By partnering to bring the Movement Health Platform to more disability insurance carriers, Sparta Science and Munich Re aim to decrease the probability of injury recurrence and the cost associated with employee absenteeism, all of which will benefit employees, employers and disability insurance carriers.
In addition, benefits of the partnership for disability insurance carriers include, cost savings in the initial production and program deployment, access to Munich Re’s group and individual disability expertise and disability-focused consultation services, as well as access to Sparta Science and their team of experts for seamless program implementation and adoption.
Dawn McMaster, Head of Business Development, Group and Living Benefits at Munich Re Life US, commented: “A long-time leader in group and individual disability reinsurance, Munich Re actively pursues ground-breaking technology to help our clients control costs and enhance their customer experience. While we are best known for our risk and reinsurance work with primary carriers, this partnership is a prime example of the array of digital partnerships and market-leading services we offer to our wide-ranging client base.”
Dr. Phil Wagner, Founder and CEO of Sparta Science, added: “Today’s assessments of musculoskeletal injury are either non-existent or based on very subjective tests. The Oxford Scale, for example, is still used today and involves an individual pushing against a physician’s hand, allowing the physician to subjectively assign a rating for the pain or injury. Sparta Science not only removes the subjective nature of these assessments to provide a more accurate evaluation but also aims to help prevent musculoskeletal injuries in the first place by identifying areas of weakness and limitation before pain or injury occurs.”
