Revolutionizing workers' comp: The role of technology in injury prevention

Injury prevention isn’t just a buzzword, it’s the most powerful, yet most under-leveraged, lever in the workers' compensation lifecycle. While much of the industry still reacts to claims, holistic workers’ compensation strategies today start long before an incident occurs. That means using technology to predict, prevent, and ultimately reduce injuries before they ever become a claim.

“If you can stop an injury from occurring,” says Kinetic CEO Adam Price, “It's the best possible outcome for everybody involved.”

At Kinetic, we’ve spent over a decade developing and refining prevention technology that works. Reflex, our wearable platform, has been proven to reduce strain and sprain injuries by up to 60%. But Reflex is just one piece of the equation. Injury prevention starts at the pre-injury stage, where risk assessment, data-driven underwriting, and operational insights set the stage for what happens next.

Understanding the risks: what causes injuries before they happen

The top risk factors at the pre-injury stage fall into two categories:

1. Operational exposure – frequent lifting, bending, twisting, and reaching, especially in industries like warehousing, parcel delivery, and manufacturing.

2. Workforce variability – high turnover, inadequate onboarding, or lack of ergonomic training often lead to preventable injuries in frontline-heavy workforces.

These conditions create predictable patterns. But recognizing those patterns early enough to prevent claims? That requires technology.

How wearables change the game

The Reflex wearable platform is a safety device designed to reduce the most common injuries in the frontline workforce: strains and sprains. It detects risky movements in real time, providing immediate feedback to workers and aggregated data to employers.

• In-market for over 10 years
• 50,000+ devices deployed
• Used by Fortune 500 companies
• Proven up to 50–60% reduction in strain/sprain injuries

“Frontline workers might bend, twist, or overreach hundreds of times a day,” says Price. “These repetitive movements are often the first signs a sprain or strain injury is coming, especially if proper ergonomics aren’t being followed.”

“Reflex hones in on those movements in real time,” he continues, “giving workers the chance to course-correct before small issues turn into serious injuries.”

Overcoming the biggest obstacle: change management

Despite its promise, prevention technology isn’t plug-and-play. The biggest challenge to implementation? Change.

For policyholders, it means introducing new behavior and workflows. The initial reaction is often fear: Will workers adopt it? Will it disrupt operations?

That’s where Kinetic’s deep specialization pays off. Because we understand the industries we serve, we’re able to integrate technology into existing workflows. This level of operational understanding helps brokers overcome objections, and helps policyholders feel confident.

What it looks like in real life

In partnership with Nationwide, Kinetic recently helped Mid-Ohio Food Collective deploy Reflex in one of their warehouse operations. The result: measurable injury reduction, higher worker engagement, and fewer disruptions to mission-critical work.

Read the full story in Risk & Insurance

Bring smart prevention to your clients

If you’re helping clients take a more proactive approach to workers’ comp, prevention technology like Reflex can be a game-changer. With the right fit, it helps reduce injuries, improve outcomes, and strengthen the broker-client relationship.

Let’s connect to explore how Kinetic’s prevention technology can help you deliver a more complete workers’ comp solution.

View our appetite to see if your clients are a fit.