Sword vs Verily Health (2026)
Two platforms selling clinical programs to employers and health plans rather than to providers. Sword delivers musculoskeletal and adjacent care with motion tracking and real time feedback at substantial scale, names HITRUST certification and a SOC 2 Type 2 examination on its trust center, and describes a human clinical specialist overseeing each member's care plan, with the specialist type set per program. Verily Health runs chronic condition management and research programs for plans, employers and pharmacy benefit managers, names ISO 27001 certification with the cloud standards beside it, and retrieves records through its affiliated provider group only after a member consents to care. Both are labor purchases wrapped in software, so price them against running the program internally. Neither publishes engagement adjusted outcomes, which is the number that decides whether a digital program worked or simply recruited the already motivated.
- It delivers musculoskeletal and adjacent care programs to employer and plan populations at substantial documented scale, with HITRUST certification and a SOC 2 Type 2 examination named.
- Oversight is described per program: a human clinical specialist oversees each member's care plan, and the privacy notice states the AI makes no autonomous clinical decisions.
- Coverage has broadened across several care programs rather than remaining a single condition service.
- It works chronic condition management and clinical research programs for plans, employers and pharmacy benefit managers, with ISO 27001 certification named.
- Records are gathered by the affiliated clinical entity only after a member explicitly consents to care, with member facing commitments on consent, use limitation and encryption.
- It retrieves outside medical records into the program through its affiliated care team, so members do not assemble their own history.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. Sword and Verily Health are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | Sword | Verily Health |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Remote Monitoring & Chronic Care | Remote Monitoring & Chronic Care |
| Founded | 2015 | 2015 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York | South San Francisco, California |
| Website | sword.com | verily.com |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Product updates
The latest logged changes from each vendor, newest first, each linked to its source.
Sword
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Pricing / packaging
From 13 October, physicians in Portugal's national health service, including family doctors and OB/GYN specialists, can prescribe Sword's remote pelvic health rehabilitation at no cost to patients.
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Clinical evidence
Sword Health published a clinical and economic evidence report on its continuous AI MSK care model, reporting $3,177 in direct savings per member per year, a 3.2x return on investment, and that 54% of members with moderate to severe surgery intent remained surgery-free.
Source
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
Sword Health, which now presents itself as Sword at sword.com (swordhealth.com forwards there), sells an AI care platform to self insured employers, health plans and unions. Phoenix, the company's AI Care Specialist, gives real time movement guidance from motion sensors and a computer vision feature that derives movement data from the device camera without storing raw images, and supports members between sessions, while a licensed clinician oversees each care plan; the company states that Phoenix makes no autonomous clinical decisions.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Precision health company, renamed Verily Health in April 2026 when it became independent of Alphabet (Alphabet remains a significant minority investor after a $300 million round led by Series X Capital).
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do Sword and Verily Health handle patient data?
For Sword, the computer vision feature processes the device camera feed in real time to derive movement tracking vectors and positional data, and raw images are not stored. Video or audio of sessions is not recorded without explicit prior consent.
The Lightpath privacy policy, issued by Verily Health Inc., may set out retention and training terms. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do Sword and Verily Health cover?
In Sword's case, the coverage described here leaves out the direct to consumer channel.
The program covers type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes with A1c above 8 percent, hypertension above 130/80, obesity and weight loss, and related comorbidities, delivered through the Verily Me app to members whose health plan or employer sponsors it. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
What evidence is published for Sword and Verily Health?
With Sword, the company also cites peer reviewed research comparing its digital physical therapy with conventional clinic based care.
In Verily Health's case, the company has published research insight pieces on its behavioral approach to nutrition change, which are not outcome evaluations as far as their titles show. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers.
Both wrap software around clinical labor sold to employers and plans, so the buyer is purchasing a service and should price it against running the equivalent program internally. Sword's member privacy notice says raw camera images are not stored and identifiable data is not used to train large language models, and it states its HIPAA position through documents rather than a business associate statement; no subgroup performance is published in a technology stack where motion and sensor variation are known to matter.
Verily Health names its products and agents but not the technology beneath them, publishes no governance framework, and names no party in its model supply chain. Neither publishes engagement adjusted outcomes, which is where digital program results usually weaken.