Looking Back, 2019

So much has happened in 2019! As the year comes to an end, there’s so much to be thankful for, and even more to look forward to in 2020.

Providence

First, Providence. We can’t say enough good things about the relationship that we’ve grown into over the last 12 months with the health system.

Healthcare has a lot of problems, the causes are complicated, and fixing things is going to take time. While complacency is the easy path forward, innovative health systems are meeting today’s challenges head-on by investing in technology and encouraging organizations to think differently. We see the latter happening across Providence, and it makes us feel right at home.

The CEO for Providence, Rod Hochman, positioned the company earlier this year at the “intersection of innovation and compassion.” While every technology company says they’re innovative, compassion is rarely front and center. This is what makes healthcare so special, and our relationship with Providence has shown us just how powerful the combination of tech and healthcare can be when anchored in a greater purpose.

We’ll continue to strengthen this relationship in 2020, and we’re excited to be an enabling component of the story that’s taking shape right here in the PNW.

What We Do Matters

A special part of our relationship with Providence has been our access to the caregivers and administrators working around the clock on behalf of patients. Each employee at Lumedic is encouraged to go on-site visits, and these visits make a difference. While it’s incredibly valuable for our teams to observe the process of healthcare administration and look for opportunities to reduce caregiver burden with new technology, these visits often drive a simpler observation: What we do matters.

In the last 3 months we’ve shadowed patient registration workflows in the ER at Swedish Cherry Hill Campus, observed prior authorization processes at specialty clinics across Oregon, and sat with the central access teams processing high volume patient work queues. Across visits, the most encouraging observation is a desire for change. The manual processes that overwhelm caregivers across healthcare administration is simply unsustainable, and caregivers want help.

These visits have been ground zero for us in understanding where to invest and build product, and they will make the difference in our ability to drive meaningful change. Whether we’re evaluating the application of a machine learning model to aid the registration process or deploying smart contracts to automate prior authorization, saving just 5 minutes of a caregiver’s time makes a difference. That’s 5 minutes they can now spend easing the way of a patient — and this is why we’re here.

Our People Matter

We spent the better part of 2019 building the foundation for the next phase of Lumedic, and this foundation is our people. We have been able to attract an incredible group of talent, and we thank everyone at Lumedic for being part of our journey.

As part of the hiring process, we ask every candidate why they want to get into healthcare. Good answers share a candidate’s need to have an impact on the world or do something that matters in an industry as broken yet important as healthcare. Better answers pull from a personal experience of injustice or frustration in healthcare, and the urge to channel that experience into action and do something about it.

Lumedic’s story started with the latter, and we’ve worked hard to unify the team in a common purpose. While we all pull from our unique experiences, what matters is that they evoke the same sense of curiosity and desire to change what is broken. We’ll be sharing more of our stories in 2020, and are excited to highlight the unique experiences that make Lumedic who we are.

Our people will carry us into 2020 and continue to build the future of Lumedic. Thank you to everyone who has joined and helped make the culture and team at Lumedic what it is today. We have so much more to do, and we can’t do it without you!

The Year Ahead

Next year is shaping up to be an exciting time for Lumedic. From product launches to new partnerships to customer growth to new team members, we have a lot in store.

We thank everyone who has been involved in our story throughout the year, and we look forward to an exciting 2020.

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season.

-Lumedic