A digital health companion with personal playlists guides patients through care

An aging grandmother falls and breaks her hip. She’s rushed to the hospital where, after a flurry of efforts to stabilize her, details on what comes next come in a confusing cascade. How risky is surgery? What happens to her regular medicine if painkillers or other new prescriptions are needed? Who will look after her—and how—once she’s home?

Health care can be difficult, with a maze of confusing instructions, conflicting information and the chaos of disconnected systems. Even in this age of information at our fingertips, the journey through a medical experience can still confound patients and their caregivers alike.

“Right now, I know there are caregivers who walk around with binders,” says Carina Edwards, chief executive of Quil Health, a new company that focuses on easing patient and caregiver burdens through a distinctive use of technology. The approach is made possible through Quil’s collaborative relationship with Independence Blue Cross and Comcast, the giant cable and technology company.

Quil’s unique approach allows patients to tap into familiar and easy-to-use media and entertainment formats, including the family television, to provide a personal roadmap for patients and caregivers to follow through an entire episode of medical care. By marrying old and new modes of communication, the concept expands the reach of health care technology exponentially, allowing those who might never wear a personal device or use an app to be empowered with the information they need, when they need it.

"It’s an app, a website, and also is available on the television,” Edwards says. In fact, Comcast customers can use the voice remote feature on the X1 system to be directly connected to their personalized content simply by saying ‘Quil Health.’ “When we can close the information gap in care to increase patient adherence, improve outcomes and lower costs, we all win.”

Quil provides step-by-step instructions to help patients understand what is next during an episode of care, customized based on their own medical circumstances. “It’s your playlist” Edwards says.

Learning they need surgery can leave patients in shock and loved ones with many questions. The patient may leave the doctor’s office, meet with their care coordinator and then return home to realize there are a number of questions they didn’t ask. They may face increased anxiety when sharing the news with family and friends.

With Quil, everyone can be walked through what to expect and how to plan not only for surgery, but recovery as well. By simply opening the Quil app or turning on their TV, patients can learn more about the medications they are prescribed, how to care for surgical wounds, rehabilitation procedures or watch videos related to their recovery.

The marriage between technology and health care is not new, but a commitment to personalization and meeting patients where they are—not only in their health care journey, but in their technology habits—sets Quil apart. Providing the right information to the right person at the right time and in the right place is key to empowering patients and improving outcomes.

“We want to enable individuals to become the healthiest version of themselves,” adds Edwards. “Quil empowers and educates through personalized and actionable resources, answering the question of ‘what happens next?’”