Kaiser Permanente and YML Win Webby for Best Health App
By YML
The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences selected Kaiser Permanente and YML's work as an official Webby People's Choice Winner in the category of Apps and Software — Health and Fitness. In an announcement on April 26th, the Webbys shared: "With more than 14,000 entries from over 70 countries, and nearly 2 million votes cast by nearly 500,000 users in the Webby People’s Voice, the 26th Annual Webby Awards is the biggest in our history."
The transformation of health care is one of the biggest stories of our time, and Kaiser Permanente has boldly emerged as an innovator. To meet evolving care demands, Kaiser Permanente tapped YML across design, engineering and product strategy to build, launch, and optimize their digital ecosystem. In less than a year, Kaiser Permanente’s web and mobile redesigns improved member’s overall satisfaction with digital from 86% to 92%, the first increase after a five-year flat trend.
Kaiser Permanente and YML were nominated alongside design and technology leaders Nike, Apple, Warby Parker and Know Your Lemons.
"We brought our members, physicians, operators, designers and engineers together to make something magical for our patients," shared Prat Vemana, Chief Digital Officer at Kaiser Permanente." Rather than something painful, we’ve made health care an experience.”
"Between Kaiser Permanente's incredible institutional knowledge of the health care world, and YML's relentless focus on speed, experimentation, and innovation, we have made a substantive difference for patients," shared Ashish Toshniwal, YML's Founder and CEO. "This Webby is just the topping on the cake!"
In just four months, Kaiser Permanente and YML built, designed and launched Get Care Now, the national virtual urgent care solution in the app that leverages smart symptom assessment and on-demand support via video, telephone, or chat. The self-service tools drove massive impact for patients; appointments booked online increased 60% YoY, lab tests viewed online increased 80% YoY, and medical bills paid online increased 22% YoY.
To respond to ongoing Covid-19 needs, Kaiser Permanente and YML built a new digital feature that alerted members when vaccines were available, how to sign up, and pointed them to real-time, relevant resources to make the most informed decision for themselves and their families. From building tools for regional providers to customize content to creating mobile-friendly proof of vaccination cards, Kaiser Permanente's COVID-19 digital tools drove 14M site visits and more than 10M vaccine appointments booked online in 2021.
“YML has innovated on multiple patient digital experience touchpoints for Kaiser Permanente through design, product thinking and engineering,” shared Prashant Palsokar, YML’s VP of Engineering who’s led the Kaiser Permanente engineering work over the last year. “We’ve also leveraged the mobile experience to improve on-premise visits by members. This is the beginning of our digital transformation of health care, and nobody is better positioned to innovate in this space than Kaiser Permanente.”
Committed to serving its more than 13M members, Kaiser Permanente and YML transformed KP.org into an easy to navigate, trustworthy and accessible public source of health for all. The refreshed UI features a strict visual hierarchy, keeping the interface free from clutter, so that anyone, with any ailment, can quickly find exactly what they need. Speed is everything for patients, and YML's engineering team replaced thousands of lines of code and implemented new automation frameworks, making today’s digital experience faster, reliable, and built to scale. The result — site visits increased 54% YoY (692M as of 12/2021).
Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to digital transformation in health care doesn’t end with the launch of a new website and app. Rather, it’s a new beginning that represents a critical shift to treat each digital product as an ongoing, iterative experience to best serve patients. Moving from transactional to proactive care, and delivering a holistic health experience. Making smarter, more personalized care recommendations with every visit, every tap and every interaction. Delivering the best and most relevant content, resources and tools to their audience, wherever they are in their journey. One destination — millions of curated pathways to care.
Equipped with a bold, innovative digital product, Kaiser Permanente is more prepared than ever to navigate, pivot and adapt in this rapidly evolving world.