Qure4u uses Twilio to power trusted communications through its digital health platform

Healthcare organizations faced enormous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing them to rapidly learn, adapt, and transform the way they deliver healthcare.

As a result, the concept of “anytime, anywhere care” has become mainstream, and patients have come to expect the process of booking a doctor's appointment to be as easy as ordering delivery from a restaurant.

But meeting the changing needs of patients starts with empowering providers. Qure4u is on a mission to create provider-centric innovation that equips physicians and their partners with all the tools they need to engage effectively and reliably with patients—both inside and outside of the doctor’s office.

A comprehensive set of tools for healthcare providers

Qure4u’s complete digital health platform supports the entire patient journey through a variety of low-friction and self-service solutions, including digital engagement that is flexible based on patient and provider preference. This flexibility and reliability—coupled with top-notch security and compliance standards—are behind Qure4u’s success.

In healthcare, when a patient and provider are communicating, it is likely to be in a high-stress environment; maybe even life and death which means that context and trust greatly matter.
“For us, reliability is key in driving patient-provider trust,” Qure4u co-founder and CEO Monica Bolbjerg said. “Ensuring continuous delivery of services and high availability of our platform equals business continuity for our customers, who depend on us.”

With innovations like Quicklink, which lets patients complete the appointment check-in process from their mobile device without the need for an app or log-in, and secure messaging that enables providers to communicate with patients and colleagues seamlessly, Qure4u’s platform is designed to enable providers to focus on care, not technology.

Built-in security, reliability, and the ability to adapt led the team at Qure4u to choose Twilio for the video and messaging components of their platform—leading to increased customizability and faster buildout for more complex workflows. “Twilio doesn’t go down. I might be able to go somewhere else and get cheaper SMS — it doesn’t matter. [What matters is] the reliability of my product and Twilio’s behind the scenes,” Bolbjerg added.

Integrated communication that works anytime, anywhere

Qure4u brings the patient and care team together, wherever they are. Digital means of patient engagement were paramount at the height of the pandemic, as countries went into lockdown and providers around the world realized they needed a way to communicate with patients without risking exposure. With Qure4u, patients can communicate with providers via their preferred channel—a capability that’s become a requirement in healthcare, even now that routine in-person visits have resumed.

The company’s Quicklink product takes convenience and efficiency a step further, enabling patients to receive timely calls to action through text message, such as appointment reminders or links to complete forms or view care instructions, without the need to download an app or create a log-in.

“Quicklink, enabled by Twilio’s platform, really changed the engagement we have with the customer,” said Bradley Dick, Qure4u’s Chief Interoperability & Security Officer. “Now, every single check-in is run through text messaging for the most part, as are appointment reminders, procedure reminders, and remote patient monitoring notifications. It really opened the door for us to scale and not be reliant on patients checking their email or downloading an app.”

Information collected remotely from patients through forms and/or remote patient monitoring tools is automatically integrated into the provider’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, saving time and lowering the burden of data entry for staff.

In addition to Quicklink, Qure4u developed DriveUp, which turns doctor’s office and hospital parking lots into waiting rooms. With DriveUp, patients are able to wait in their cars and receive an alert when it’s time to enter the facility, allowing providers to better control waiting room volumes. It also lets providers know exactly where queued patients are in the check-in process, and send them relevant forms or documents, if needed. This was especially helpful at key points during the pandemic—early-to-mid 2020, when testing demand increased, and also later in the year, when vaccines became available, Dick noted.

“When people aren’t in front of you, you have no clue what status they are,” he said. “Having that real-time visibility and granularity was so critical to making that successful.”

Leveling up for the future of telehealth

As the way patients interact with healthcare providers continues to evolve, Qure4u is on an upward growth trajectory—the platform’s monthly usage has remained high, even as in-person visits have resumed, according to Dick. Looking to the future, he said the company is focused on advancing its multichannel communications features in order to increase access to care, optimize care delivery, and improve patient engagement.

“Since we’ve got this great communications medium, it’s going to be about how we take it to the next level,” Dick said. “How can we take what we’re doing and add a voice component or chat component, while still validating the person’s identity in a real-time, seamless way. Those are the types of workflows that really make it easier for the patient navigating their care journey.”