Luma
Aditya Bansod, CTO of Luma
Can you provide a high-level overview of your product and its core functionality?
Luma’s Patient Success Platform unifies all of a patient’s healthcare journeys and simplifies next steps, for both patients and staff. The platform is unique because we combine market-defining digital health solutions with an informed perspective and integration with the large technology stacks that healthcare organizations rely on today. Luma is designed to bring insights from many different systems into consumer-first, easy-to-understand outreach to all of a healthcare organization’s patients, then get them to the next step in their journeys.
Luma’s out-of-the-box solutions are innovative in their deep integration with the electronic health record (EHR) and the tech stack, and ability to work together to create end-to-end patient workflows. Luma integrates with leading EHRs like Oracle Health (formerly Cerner), Epic, MEDITECH, eClinicalWorks, NextGen Healthcare, Greenway Health, and many more (80+ total). By partnering through programs such as Epic’s Showroom, Oracle Partner Network (formerly Cerner’s CODE), and MEDITECH Alliance, we access and use FHIR API and proprietary APIss to accomplish innovative workflows. For example, Luma’s actionable appointment reminders are sent automatically based on appointment details in the EHR schedule. From the message, patients can confirm, cancel, or reschedule, with changes written back to the EHR scheduling application in real time. They can also join waitlists, which automatically reach out to patients with the same appointment length, provider type, etc. when another patient cancels the appointment. By contrast, the same workflow from competitors like solutions might require multiple different systems and manual uploads of information from one system to another.
Our customers value Luma’s integration with the electronic health record because it allows the EHR to stay the source of truth for staff and clinicians, while Luma serves as a system of action. A recent innovation is Luma’s ability to embed messaging history with the patient directly in the patient’s chart in the EHR using SMART-on-FHIR, allowing clinicians and staff to review without leaving their daily workspace.
Luma also integrates with the rest of a healthcare organization’s tech stack, including CRM systems such as Salesforce, population health management systems such as Azara Healthcare, patient portal apps, and more. For example, population health specialists or clinicians using both Azara and Luma can simply click a button from a population health report in Azara to send a message to a given patient population using Luma. In another innovative use case, Montefiore Health System in New York uses Luma as an engine for their Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3) initiative. Luma’s API integration with Montefiore’s Epic EHR enables Luma to create a new patient virtual urgent care visit, message a provider, mark the visit as urgent, and more right in the chart, facilitating a tablet-based emergency visit.
Luma’s breadth and depth of out-of-the-box platform-based solutions, plus our innovative approach to orchestrating a healthcare organization’s entire tech stack, are unique in the digital health space and create continued value for our customers.
Luma’s platform includes 30+ out-of-the-box modules, as well as the ability to support entirely custom workflows. This range of EHR-integrated capabilities allows healthcare organizations to craft workflows and experiences that fit their needs and patient populations – ultimately helping them keep a full schedule, provide a better experience for patients and staff, and keep patients coming back.
The platform helps health systems reach more patients and get them on the schedule with referral and attribution list outreach, messaging in 30+ languages, recall and broadcast messaging, LumaBot virtual assistants, self-scheduling (including web, text, and Google My Business-enabled scheduling), and AI-powered patient concierge supporting SMS-first patient actions. Each of these modules is integrated with the EHR and automated, supporting a single source of truth and reducing days of manual follow-ups for staff and care delays for patients.
Once patients are on the schedule, the Luma platform ensures they stay on the schedule and make it through the doors of the health system for care. SMS-based reminders, cancellation management and rescheduling automatically offer patients alternatives if they can’t make a scheduled appointment. Meanwhile, waitlist offers integrated with the EHR schedule offer the newly opened time to patients who need to be seen sooner, without staff lifting a finger. Automated digital intake, check-in, balance reminders, requests for patient feedback, and recall reminders streamline the day of care and post-care follow-up.
Luma’s flexible, API-integrated platform also enables our customers to co-design workflows that match their unique use cases and deliver even more value. For example, Montefiore Health System, an academic health system in the Bronx, uses API integration between Luma and their Epic OpTime OR system to send messages to a patient’s loved ones based on surgery updates documented in the patient’s record. At Banner Health, a large integrated delivery network in the Mountain West, Luma’s platform is used for many innovative workflows including Text the CEO, a program allowing admitted patients to text to provide feedback about their hospital stay directly to the hospital CEO.
We look forward to continued growth in areas that will help our customers reduce staff burden and increase their own revenue with their existing resources: conversational AI, expanded financial journey and bi-directional integration, and more.
Can you tell us about your target customer segments?
Our customers come to Luma to solve urgent pain points, including staff shortages, high call volumes and drop-off rates, low referral conversion, holes in their schedules, or significant time spent obtaining and transcribing paper forms. Luma helps customers from large integrated delivery networks to specialty groups to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) get their patients access to care faster and more efficiently.
Large health systems like University Hospitals use Luma as the core engine for patient touchpoints across the enterprise, from virtual assistance and self-triage for unique service lines like UH’s Cutler Center for Men to deeply EHR-integrated workflows like delivering the patient’s communication history using Luma directly in the patient chart. Specialty groups like Seaview Orthopaedics enable EHR-integrated pre-visit patient forms and intake, reducing wait times and better utilizing their schedule to care for patients more quickly and remain competitive. FQHCs like Ryan Health use multilingual messaging and 24/7 self-scheduling and waitlist capabilities to make access more equitable for diverse and underserved patient populations.
To-date, Luma has been focused on the U.S. market, but many international markets are underserved in terms of healthcare technology and infrastructure, and as emerging markets invest in digitizing healthcare systems, there’s an opportunity for significant growth potential.
We believe it’s crucial to offer a better consumer experience – one that goes beyond simply offering engagement options to truly orchestrating journeys for the benefit of patients, staff, and system. Luma’s Patient Success Platform is uniquely suited to deliver success and ensure our customers can navigate these pressures to care for their patients.
How do you think about differentiation?
Luma’s product and engineering teams are highly focused on product quality and continued enhancement of our existing products, not just our innovative new products. For example, we continue to invest in expanding our already robust EHR integration capabilities to support more bi-directional information writeback, and we support advanced scheduling use cases including linked appointment scheduling. Luma’s Quality Assurance team understands that “it can never fail,” and is led by a quality leader formerly of the financial services industry.
We see our product quality and reliability as very competitive in the digital health space. Luma consistently brings in new customers who prefer Luma’s functionality to competitors such as Televox, Artera (fka WELL Health), EHR-native solutions, and more. In particular, our customers cite Luma’s scalability to handle large patient volumes, integration with a variety of EHRs and other systems, reliability of automated messaging, innovative use cases, and superior customizability to meet a variety of patient needs as reasons they chose Luma over another vendor. We believe that technology is an answer for many of our customer needs, and we love to co-create with customers directly and develop innovative solutions for our platform to solve their specific real needs; it can’t be just cool technology looking for a use case.
One of Luma’s standout capabilities bringing best-in-class product quality in comparison to the broader market is our ability to automate end-to-end workflows for patients, staff, and providers. Especially as the ongoing provider shortage is projected to worsen in the next few years, this automation is crucial for healthcare delivery systems.
For example, for patients: Luma can automatically message a patient due for follow-up; provide a scheduling link specific to the right provider and appointment type; allow the patient to schedule, confirm or cancel, reschedule, or sign up for automated waitlist offers for a sooner appointment time; send the patient a reminder cadence with educational content; and prompt the patient to complete intake; all without staff lifting a finger. Meanwhile, information is integrated with the EHR to avoid double-documentation from staff or providers. A similar workflow using a competitor such as Phreesia could be partially automated, but then create a digital dead end for the patient when they cannot reschedule from an appointment reminder and need to call and engage with staff instead.
Workflows like this one are completely customizable by the healthcare organization – message contents, cadence, triggering events in the patient record, form questions, available appointment types, and much more are all customizable to meet the organization’s particular needs. This customization and flexibility enables our customers to accomplish many different needs with Luma’s products – for example, by automatically messaging patients with a specific care gap based on reporting in the EHR and sending those patients customized resources and clinical forms.
How do you leverage AI and other advanced technologies to improve your product?
Founded in 2015, Luma has never deviated from our core mission of leveraging technology to connect patients to their providers more easily. We believe that technology needs to be designed for real needs and real people. It can’t be just cool technology looking for a use case. That’s been our philosophy for nearly a decade now as we’ve pushed the envelope with machine learning, NLP, and LLMs, and we continue to follow that ethos with our generative AI technology, Spark.
Spark transforms the tricky and all-too-manual parts of patient access, staff workflows, and healthcare interactions:
Understanding natural language (phone, SMS)
Parsing structured information (faxes, intake forms, etc.)
Providing actionable next steps
Spark builds on our deep EHR integration and patient context already available in the Luma platform. It supports both patient interactions and staff efficiency by relying on:
Bi-directional integration with leading EHRs, including Oracle Health, Epic, eClinicalWorks, MEDITECH, athenahealth, NextGen, and Greenway Health.
Zero-retention generative AI used with healthcare privacy in mind, including OpenAI GPT-4, Claude Opus, deepgram, and others, fine-tuned for healthcare.
Industry-leading information security (HITRUST r2, SOC Type II, ISO 27001:2022, and TX-RAMP Level 2 certified), with Spark built to be in compliance with ISO 42001:2023.
Spark reimagines what it looks like to connect patients to providers, while staying true to our mission: needing healthcare can be hard, but getting it shouldn’t be. With Spark, getting to care is easy, convenient, and works for real lives and real schedules. And on the staff side, hours of frustrating manual tasks are taken care of so staff can spend more time with patients.
Navigator is an AI-native solution that empowers patients to self-serve with the guided experience of a customer service agent. It brings deep contextual understanding to voice conversations, intelligently switching to SMS, switching languages, handing over to staff, and even following up on dropped calls.
Fax Transform is AI-powered processing and follow-up for paper and electronic faxes. Fax Transform completes manual steps behind the scenes in seconds, parsing discrete data and classifying faxes so staff simply need to verify.
With Spark, we’ve built the most impactful AI the market has seen yet, one that helps healthcare organizations drive the business with technology, not because of technology. We can’t wait to transform the workflows that our customers have told us are the biggest areas of opportunity – and to continue growing what Spark can do.
What are some of the main outcomes and benefits buyers are seeing after adopting your solution?
Luma’s integration is critically important because it prevents staff from needing to follow up on tasks performed by Luma or duplicate work. For example, when a patient books a waitlist offer from Luma, the new booked appointment is immediately shown as booked in the EHR schedule and the older appointment is immediately freed up and offered to other patients who may be waiting. Staff don’t need to check a queue of accepted waitlist offers or transcribe waitlist changes from Luma into the EHR.
Luma also drives health system revenue and strategic goals. With Luma, healthcare organizations have seen the following results:
Saved staff time on manual tasks (e.g. fewer phone calls, use of electronic intake instead of paper intake, no longer needing to manage multiple point solution vendors, less time processing faxes, etc.).
Increased schedule utilization and related appointment revenue (increase in scheduled appointments, increase in confirmed appointments, decrease in no-shows, increase in scheduled referrals).
Improvement in patient experience (e.g. increased utilization of the EHR patient portal, increase in patient intake completed pre-appointment, increase in positive patient feedback and Google ratings).
2M+ COVID-19 vaccinations scheduled.
47% average revenue increase.
37% more referred patients are seen on average after 6 months.
Luma’s newest AI-powered products are also driving significant outcomes:
Luma’s Navigator eliminated up to 95% of inbound phone calls as a voice AI agent, freeing up 100+ hours at one health system in the first month.
Navigator automatically triages patient responses and replies as appropriate as a text AI agent, reducing call burden for staff. More than 80%of all conversations were resolved by Navigator without needing any human assistance.
Fax Transform reduces 70% of fax processing time, saving hundreds of hours per practice per day.
Can you share more about your product roadmap and where you see development going over the next 6-12 months?
Over the past 10 years, Luma has evolved from an initial set of patient messaging and matching products to a complete end-to-end Patient Success Platform, enabling health systems to automate and orchestrate nearly every part of a patient’s journey – from access to operational. We’ve been fortunate that even as the company has grown, we’ve never had to change course from our original vision: to help patients be successful in their healthcare journeys. We believe that technology is an answer for many of our customer needs, and we love to co-create with customers directly. We develop innovative solutions to solve the real needs of real people; we believe that solutions can’t be just cool technology looking for a use case.
Luma’s primary focus over the next 6-12 months is to continue to innovate on that original mission of helping to make it easier for patients to get healthcare. This will include investment in:
Continued deep integration with core EHR systems like athenahealth, eClinical Works, Epic, MEDITECH, and Oracle Health.
Continued adoption of AI solutions for operational workflows.
Revenue cycle management. By automating various components of the appointment registration preparation and billing cycle processes, Luma can ensure that healthcare staff can focus more on patient care while still efficiently managing their business.
Access center support. Connecting patients to care is a core Luma competency and we’re innovating with AI-native solutions like Navigator to make that process easier. We can help healthcare organizations manage high call volumes while ensuring patients get timely and accurate responses, ultimately leading to improved patient satisfaction and more efficient staff time.
Novel workflows that go beyond pre-built and even configurable workflows. Luma is a platform of innovation where powerful EHR-integrated actions and unparalleled flexibility mean there’s virtually no limit to the customized solutions we can offer.
In addition to evolving Luma’s existing Patient Success Platform, the team continues to pursue new ideas regarding how technology can make connecting patients to care easier. This includes exploring paid media to fill open patient slots, supporting the life science and pharmaceutical sectors, and expanding into international markets.
Ultimately Luma has created a company culture of innovation that in turn fuels our future growth.
How do you approach cybersecurity and data privacy?
Luma Health architects our security program around internationally-recognized information security and data privacy frameworks, as well as industry best practices. We undertake accredited third-party audits no less than annually to ensure ongoing compliance.
Luma’s dedicated, in-house Security and Compliance team ensures that Luma follows the latest information security frameworks and data privacy regulations, including staying up-to-date on upcoming changes.
We are HITRUST CSF r2 Certified, TX-RAMP (Texas Risk and Authorization Management Program) Level 2 certified, and ISO 27001:2022 certified. Additionally, we participate in the US- EU Privacy framework, including the UK and Swiss extensions. We also perform a SOC 2 Type II attestation annually, providing assurance that not only do we have appropriate security controls in place, but they are also operating effectively. Lastly, all of Luma’s software and company processes are fully HIPAA-compliant.
Can you tell us more about the technology behind your product and how you built it?
At Luma Health, our technology is designed with a customer-first approach, focusing on practical solutions that address real-world challenges in healthcare. Our AI-native Patient Success Platform™ is built in-house, ensuring seamless integration with EHRs and other core systems. This deep integration eliminates manual tasks for staff and makes it easier for patients to access the care they need.
We prioritize co-creating and co-developing with our customers to tailor solutions that meet their specific needs. Our research and development philosophy centers on delivering effective solutions rather than pursuing technology for its own sake. This collaborative approach has led to innovations like Navigator (AI concierge) and Fax Transform (AI-powered fax processing), which streamline operations and enhance patient engagement.
Our platform’s comprehensive capabilities and robust integration set us apart in the market. Unlike other patient engagement solutions that piece together acquired technologies, Luma’s solutions are developed internally, resulting in a cohesive and efficient system. This dedication to seamless integration has earned us recognition, including two patents for our unique EHR integration capabilities.
Luma’s technology is built on a foundation of customer collaboration, practical innovation, and deep system integration, all aimed at improving healthcare experiences for both patients and providers.
Can you share some customer success stories or case studies that highlight your product’s impact?
Check out a few in-depth case studies from some of our customers here!
How do you handle implementation and onboarding for new clients?
Luma’s Customer Success division focuses on building long-term partnerships with each customer to deliver exceptional customer value. In order to offer differentiated service, the Luma team provides recommendations and best practices based on data and insights collected from millions of patient interactions across our customer base. These insights, collectively referred to as Luma Bedrock, are also available directly to customers in Luma’s Help Center, where customers can access articles written by Luma’s expert technical writers to enable their self-service customizations of the platform.
Each customer has a dedicated Implementation Manager throughout their product implementation, with support from Luma’s product managers, integration experts, engineers, and solution architects. By providing white-glove service and support during the onboarding process, we set the standard for the long-term customer relationship owned by a dedicated Customer Success Manager specialized to that customer’s organization type (FQHC, academic medical center, etc.) and patient population. Each customer is also overseen at an executive level by an Executive Sponsor from Luma’s leadership team, as well as by senior Customer Success leadership.
Customer Success Managers and executive leaders at Luma meet with customers quarterly, both remotely and on-site, to understand their successes and challenges with Luma and offer recommendations and solutions to the customer’s business challenges.
Luma’s support engineers address technical support needs and enhancement requests, with an average ticket closure time of 3 days or less, and average customer satisfaction score of more than 99%.
We also have extensive product training support including our proprietary Luma U, specific training from a customer’s Solution Consultant, or a one-off live session to help staff understand their specific Luma workflows and configurations. Training is available for all users, from system administrators to frontline staff end users.
What are the biggest reasons customers choose your product over competitors?
Many vendors market a similar subset of solutions to those included in the Luma platform, but the breadth and depth of our solutions and deep core system integrations are unique and highly differentiated in the market.
Luma’s solutions are all developed in-house, differentiating our platform’s breadth and depth of integration from other patient engagement solutions on the market which acquire solutions to create a full platform. In KLAS Research’s report Patient Engagement Platforms 2020, Luma’s platform was recognized as having the most robust capabilities of any non-EHR vendor.
Luma’s integration capabilities have been awarded multiple patents, recognizing our uniquely market-leading ability to integrate with EHRs and the entire tech stack. Additionally, Luma’s Navigator (AI concierge) and Fax Transform (AI-powered fax processing) lead the market. Other vendors may offer AI chatbots, but Luma’s Navigator is unique in its ability to handle complex conversations and accomplish tasks directly integrated with the EHR – building on Luma’s machine learning-powered actionable next steps. Luma’s Fax Transform is unique in the market and applies AI to a highly manual task.
Overall, Luma Health is leading the transformation from patient engagement to patient success.
Can you discuss any specific challenges or feedback you’ve received from customers?
Luma’s customers each have a dedicated Customer Support Manager who meets with them quarterly to discuss business goals, product feedback, and future plans. Customers see and give feedback on Luma’s yearly product roadmap, and they are also encouraged to join Luma’s Early Access program. Early Access participants try out new products and capabilities, working directly with the product manager, and provide their feedback. Product managers then adjust planned development in response to these insights before the product is released to the wider Luma Health community.
Our customers are also personally invited to a variety of community summits throughout the year for open discussion, problem-solving, and feedback. Executive session cohorts are divided by EHR, by organization type, and more. The annual Lumanate customer event each autumn provides another opportunity for customers to see planned and new development and discuss their needs, with cohorted, customer-led, and expert-led sessions as well as presentations by Luma’s subject matter experts.
Before and during product development, Luma’s product managers seek out individual customer feedback on concepts, planned workflows, and desired outcomes. The Luma team also values insights on customer and market feedback from industry analysts; for example, Luma regularly meets with KLAS Research to understand anonymized customer feedback trends.
For products in use by our customers, Luma’s product team monitors Net Promoter Scores in real time, and encourages detractors to meet with product managers to discuss their feedback.
Who do you consider as your main competitors, and how do you stand apart from them?
We have two types of main competitors, the native solutions available in the EHRs, and other patient success platforms, like Phreesia, Televox, Artera, and Notable.
We stand out from the competition because:
Luma’s solutions are more comprehensive, offering a significantly broader feature set than our competitors. Additionally, all of Luma’s solutions are developed in-house, offering more seamless workflows and deeper EHR integration.
Luma’s customers choose Luma over competitors due to our commitment to privacy. We never sell patient data or use ads, nor configure our platform to spam patients with irrelevant messages.
Luma offers robust rescheduling, which is a key workflow to enable full patient self-service and prevent additional inbound phone calls. Our integration is near-real-time, keeping staff and patients up to date. Luma’s messaging is also more flexible and customizable, and allows patients to take robust actions such as canceling an appointment or joining a waitlist.
Due to Luma’s robust integration capabilities and comprehensive platform that enhances the entire patient and staff experience, we can ensure seamless operations and reliable performance. In contrast, other patient success platforms rely heavily on robotic process automation (RPA) which leads to integration issues and inconsistencies, undermining its long-term reliability and effectiveness.
How do you see the market evolving over the next 3-5 years?
In the next 3-5 years, Luma believes the healthcare IT industry is poised for significant transformation across several key areas:
Market consolidation. We anticipate considerable consolidation among health tech companies, particularly those that have plateaued around $10-12 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). This may occur through private equity sponsorships or mergers aimed at achieving exits for stakeholders, including physicians.
AI-native solutions. The industry will likely witness the emergence of a myriad of new AI-native solutions. These innovations will need time to prove their value and effectiveness, shaping the competitive landscape as they evolve. Specifically on the operational side, Luma sees continued advancements in AI-driven tools like prior authorization, claims processing, denial management, and medical coding. Companies like Duke AI are already pioneering operational models to streamline these processes and improve efficiency.
Focus on health equity and value-based care. Payers will continue to play a pivotal role in addressing health equity, guiding members and patients toward appropriate providers and resources. This trend reflects an increased emphasis on equitable access to care and outcomes for diverse populations.
These trends highlight the healthcare IT industry’s ongoing evolution, driven by innovation, collaboration, and a focus on improving both patient and provider experiences.