Joint Ai is a Pittsburgh-based healthtech company that utilizes an AI-powered platform to automate X-ray evaluation and patient-reported outcomes, aiming to streamline the triage of knee and hip arthritis patients and determine appropriate surgical or non-operative care pathways. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Joint Ai founder Dr. Tony DiGioia to learn more.
Dr. Tony DiGioia’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Dr. DiGioia said:
“I am an engineer, entrepreneur, and practicing orthopaedic surgeon from Pittsburgh, PA, who has always tried to merge the art and science of medicine in order to help patients. I founded the Bone and Joint Center at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, the Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health, the UPMC Innovation Center, and the AMD3 Foundation, and we deliver comprehensive bone and joint care by integrating technology, process, and experience-based design to improve outcomes and experiences while reducing costs.”
“Orthopaedic surgeons are being asked to do more with less, with fewer providers and resulting longer wait times, all while trying to provide timely care for patients, so something must change. To address these issues, I have always tried to develop and utilize new technologies to improve care delivery as well as patient experiences. That is why we built Joint Ai, a surgeon-designed clinical decision support platform that equips non-expert users to accurately evaluate hip and knee arthritis and generate individualized treatment plans, so the patients get the right care at the right time.”
“Joint Ai combines artificial intelligence with clinical expertise to deliver reliable, accurate and easy to integrate tools that quickly improves access to care, reduce wait times and deliver exceptional patient experiences.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Dr. DiGioia shared:
“Patient care is increasingly a question of access – and especially when it comes to knee and hip arthritis, a growing patient population in need meets a declining workforce. The number of orthopaedic surgeons treating hip and knee arthritis continues to decline while there is a growing epidemic of patients in pain with significant degeneration of their hips and knees that require care and many needing joint replacement surgery. This bottleneck is especially severe in rural and already underserved communities. So, there is a growing need across the board to triage these patients to the right level of care efficiently and accurately.”
“In addition, it is a known factor that there is an over-utilization of surgery given that 25–30% of patients who undergo joint replacement were not appropriate candidates for surgery yet and should have been treated non-operatively. So, we also need a better system to determine when patients are truly ready for their joint replacement.”
“Joint Ai is being evaluated to determine its impact in addressing both issues of access to care and the overutilization of surgery by helping orthopaedic surgeons and other providers and their staff easily and efficiently evaluate patients while streamlining workflows and enabling patients to see the right provider for a timely and accurate diagnosis and implementation of care.”
“Joint Ai also has potential to provide a second opinion in determining if patients with hip and knee arthritis are truly surgical or non-operative candidates at the current time.”
Rewarding Experience
What has been the most rewarding part of your experience with Joint Ai so far? Dr. DiGioia reflected:
“First is how welcoming patients have been to Joint Ai. The platform provides patients with an easy to understand “report card” that includes pictures of their joints plus their own reported levels of pain and dysfunction caused by their pain. These reports are great additions to the shared decision-making process when it comes to both operative but also non-operative care for their joint arthritis.”
“Secondly, it’s rewarding to see surgeons and office staff appreciate how easy Joint Ai is to use and how seamlessly it fits into their office flow.”
“Lastly, we have started to use Joint Ai coupled with a mobile x-ray unit to provide the evaluation and care of hip and knee arthritis in underserved communities in Western PA, which is something that we have never been able to provide up until now.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dr. DiGioia explained:
“Joint Ai is our clinical decision aid. It combines standard X-rays with patient-reported outcomes (PRO) surveys to recommend operative vs. non-operative care. It’s designed so any provider can complete a screening and evaluation in minutes. Our retrospective studies report 96% alignment when compared with fellowship-trained adult reconstruction surgeons. Joint Ai outputs a report that surgeons can also use as a shared decision-making tool with patients about their care.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Dr. DiGioia acknowledged:
“As a practicing orthopaedic surgeon and entrepreneur, I have personal experience seeing the needs of care teams and where there is an opportunity for technology to help them focus on patients. Patient access to care is paramount. Rising demand and a constrained workforce put pressure on clinics. So, we are always evaluating how this new approach and technology can better be used in real world clinical practice.”
“We’re not creating just another clinical tool; we’re pioneering a smarter way to evaluate hip and knee pain and support diagnosis. By blending surgical expertise with artificial intelligence, Joint Ai integrates seamlessly into existing clinical workflows to match patients to the right care at the right time.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dr. DiGioia noted:
“The only two inputs required for Joint Ai are standard office-based x-rays and the patient reported outcome surveys. However, we know that collecting patient surveys in a timely way can be challenging for any clinic, so we created a version of our platform that uses x-ray images only. Using the Joint Ai triage module allowed one of our pilot sites to quickly evaluate the level of degenerative joint disease present and efficiently triage them to the appropriate provider, reducing wait times to see surgeons if the patients are surgical candidates or to the appropriate provider right away if they are a non-surgical candidate to start with. This version of the Joint Ai platform is particularly useful for clinical teams who need a way to screen incoming referrals to find cases where a non-operative provider may be the right first step in a patient’s journey to better joint health.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dr. DiGioia cited:
“We’ve recently secured funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to accelerate both our development and partnerships. Joint Ai is also engaged in real-world pilots and leveraging de-identified patient information, which will continue to accelerate our development of the platform.”
Funding
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Dr. DiGioia revealed:
“We publicly announced a $315,000 investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation in September 2025.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dr. DiGioia assessed:
“There is a growing number of patients with hip and knee arthritis – some say in epidemic proportions. This, combined with the urgent need to address the overuse of joint replacement surgery and the growing opportunity to provide remote, on line second opinions, creates a massive market opportunity.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dr. DiGioia affirmed:
“Three things differentiate Joint Ai. First is holistic screening that integrates technology that supports clinical care: we combine PROs and X-ray analysis to recommend operative vs non-operative care pathways and produce patient-friendly reports. Joint Ai is unique in that our aim is to make a functional tool for care teams that easily fit into their practices and office flow.”
“Second, efficiency and usability: clients can triage in about 90 seconds with workflows any provider can run, and we provide outputs that can be shared with patients and referring providers.”
“Third, control of the technology: our models and preprocessing are proprietary and run in-house, not via external inference APIs.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Dr. DiGioia emphasized:
“Expand the number of pilot partners using Joint Ai, in clinical settings, to collect more real-world data on the impact our tool has on both care teams’ efficiency and patient experiences.” ““In addition, we are exploring how Joint Ai might support other stakeholders. We recently launched an educational and informational virtual second opinion service leveraging Joint Ai: patients can provide their xrays and respond to two simple questionnaires and receive a customized report about their arthritis and care options to use as a shared decision making tool with their surgeon or other provider. This is a self-pay service, but we are also investigating how the efficiency and, importantly, independence and repeatability of Joint Ai might assist in the surgical authorization process with insurers and self-insured companies.”
“Finally, we are using Joint Ai to improve access and provide care in underserved communities.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Dr. DiGioia concluded:
“We’re based in Pittsburgh, which has received a lot of attention for its central role in the AI revolution, and we’re excited to be here alongside so many other companies. If your clinic wants early access and an opportunity to help shape our roadmap, our pilot partner program is open. Visit our website to learn more: www.jointai.co. If you are interested in my Joint Effort Second Opinion Program to get a customized educational and information report about your arthritis and care options you can visit my website to learn more: https://portal.joint-evaluation.com/main.”
