WELL Health Launches HIPAA-compliant Patient Texting Platform

Communications platform allows healthcare organizations to interact with patients on their existing messaging apps

MENLO PARK, CA — March 10, 2016 — WELL Health Inc. today unveiled WELL Messenger, a HIPAA-compliant communications platform that allows healthcare organizations to interact with their patients on patients’ existing messaging apps. With WELL, practices can text patients between visits instead of calling, mailing letters, or sending email — antiquated tactics which are both time intensive and have poor patient compliance.

Messaging is playing an ever increasing role in modern day communication, with 81 percent of Americans reporting that they use text messaging on their phones, making it 10 percent more popular than phone calls or email (PEW, April 2015). Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat are used by over 1 billion people globally.

“Communications is one of the most vexing challenges in healthcare,” said Mark Long, Director, UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute, the world’s top biotechnology incubator according to research group UBI. “Phone calls are inefficient — staff is single-threaded, everything must be transcribed to the medical record, and typos can cost thousands of dollars in lost insurance reimbursement. Calling is loathed by patients and administrators alike.”

WELL Messenger was created to help healthcare organizations reach their patients on the platforms they’re using most frequently, dramatically increasing staff efficiency and improving patient experience. In addition to alphanumeric text, WELL Messenger enables healthcare practices to send photos, videos, paperwork and pre and post visit instructions to patients, and have group chats with other members of the care team. Content can also be automated to send to patients at any interval before or after a visit, or when patients are added to the practice.

WELL integrates directly with NextGen, Epic and other leading Electronic Health Records (EHRs), providing real-time data transfer and eliminating manual transcription of patient information to the medical record.

“Our staff and patients love WELL. It’s quicker and more effective for reaching patients, and certainly beats opening snail mail and sitting on hold,” said Kitty Ebert, CEO, Peninsula Orthopedic Associates. “Everyone knows how to text.”

“Messaging is the new reality for communications,” said Guillaume de Zwirek, co-founder and CEO, WELL Health. “The big healthcare players are out hawking that email will ‘revolutionize care’ but don’t be fooled — they’ve completely missed the boat. Patient messaging is finally possible in healthcare.”

WELL Messenger is free, with EHR integration available to organizations on a software-as-a-service subscription model. For more information or an instant demo, visit www.wellapp.com.

About WELL Health Inc.

WELL is a HIPAA-compliant communications platform that enables healthcare administrators to text patients between visits. The web, desktop and mobile apps integrate with all leading EHRs, revealing pertinent patient information alongside messages and automatically mapping incoming information to the patient’s medical record. WELL is based in Menlo Park, CA and was founded in 2015. Learn more at www.wellapp.com.