Praia Health: Powering health care where you need it

April 12, 2024

Providence Digital Innovation Group

[4 MIN READ]

Praia Health, the latest spinout from Providence’s Digital Innovation Group, is working to bring personalized experiences to patients at health systems across the country.
Providence built Praia Health to power the personalized recommendations within the Providence app, from screening guidance to easy appointment scheduling to community support resources.
Read on to learn how Providence and Praia Health are helping health care consumers get personalized care, when and how they want it.

Consumer expectations are changing. Whether shopping with a single click or researching answers to a question, people have expectations about how they engage with any service provider. Health care is not exempt from these shifts.

The Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG) is working to change how health systems approach this evolution, and Praia Health, a company incubated within Providence, is helping health systems meet these patient expectations.

“Praia Health powers Providence’s logged-in consumer experiences,” says Kris Kelsay, executive director, thought leadership and go-to-market for the Providence Digital Innovation Group. “That means when patients sign in to the website and Providence app, they receive a personal experience, tailored to them. Praia Health is a modern consumer platform for health systems that revolutionizes the delivery of personalized health solutions.”

Praia Health is now spinning out as a separate company to enable patient-focused experiences to other health systems throughout the country. This new technology makes it faster and cheaper for health systems to create tailored experiences for each patient. For example, before Praia Health, Providence could only build a few custom features in its app every year. This year, they expect to deliver more than 40.

Building a solution from the ground up

Though Providence saw the need for these personalized experiences, there wasn’t a solution available in the market. However, as a health system with a robust innovation practice, Providence was well-equipped to build a solution that met these needs for patients.

“Given the need to incorporate the electronic medical record, security and many custom integrations, we recognized that it’s very expensive and complicated to customize solutions for individual patients,” says Kelsay. “That meant we needed a platform that could merge these different components together, and a solution didn’t exist in the market.”

Praia Health enables new kinds of digital experiences from health systems that have not been possible before. Now, instead of parsing through emails to look at lab results, patients can see their results alongside resources, programs and services that might be helpful to them. For example, they may see classes, local support groups and other options that are displayed automatically based on their medical record.

Over time, patients will see the whole picture of resources that the health system offers for whatever their health issue or goals are, and the technology behind Praia Health means these recommendations can be delivered automatically. That automation also helps to ease the burden on caregivers.

“The people within our health system are providing great services, and this technology empowers us to deliver them in a more scalable way and extend the reach of their work,” says Kelsay. For example, a provider who creates a diabetes cooking program can share that program widely through the app, not just with her own patients.

The app is also freeing up caregivers from administrative tasks so they can spend more time taking care of patients. Given the current workforce crisis in health care, technology can help solve problems while reducing burnout and increasing efficiency, all without negatively impacting care.

Meeting patient expectations – and needs

Having these engaging experiences is important because most – up to 90% – of contributors to health outcomes are nonmedical, according to the National Academy of Medicine. These personalized programs are beginning to address important social determinants of health like nutrition and housing that impact overall wellness.

“Praia Health is enabling our digital experiences to move from a clinical orientation to a whole-person approach,” says Kelsay. “It becomes really cool when our logged-in digital experiences begin to include financial assistance programs, reminders about what health action patients need or offering rides to people who need transportation to their appointments.”

Already, Praia Health is powering interventions that are saving lives. For example, Praia Health can target patients eligible for a mammogram with in-app reminders and gives patients the ability to schedule their appointments with a single click. DIG has seen that 30% of people receiving these notifications click them and book their mammogram the same day.

“Being able to schedule your appointment right after getting that reminder helps reduce friction,” says Kelsay. “We are working to ease the way for patients to work with us as their partner in health. And we are spinning this solution out so we can help improve the health of all people, not just those at Providence.”

To see these new digital tools in action, download the Providence app and sign in using your Providence or MyChart credentials. You can create a Providence account if you don’t have one, which will give you access to both the Providence app and MyChart. Inside the app, you’ll find a robust digital experience customized to you — with all of your care options in one place. This includes personalized programs, recommended services and resources, self-service support, and navigation capabilities.

Contributing caregiver

Kris Kelsay, executive director, thought leadership and go-to-market for the Providence Digital Innovation Group.

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