From pioneering to a customer focused ambition in the healthcare sector

10 years of Aurora Innovation in the Netherlands (2013-2023)

It all started with a strong belief in improving patient satisfaction and providing a better work environment for healthcare providers. Ten years ago, the original Aurora Innovation team cycled past healthcare organisations in the Netherlands and offered Aurora teleQ for free. Why did they offer it for free? It was to test if teleQ was suitable for the Dutch market. And based on the success that Aurora teleQ had in the Swedish healthcare market, the team was convinced that the use of teleQ as a communication platform would bring a major change in the Dutch healthcare sector. And now, on the 14th of September, Aurora Innovation can celebrate its tenth anniversary in the Netherlands.

Extensive market research was the key in bringing Netherlands into the scope of Aurora Innovation’s development. A good estimate, as it turned out to be one of the largest markets for Aurora teleQ’s success. Marcel Taal works as account manager for Aurora Innovation in the Netherlands and reflected: “I was immediately confident because with my knowledge of the healthcare industry I saw that Aurora teleQ offered a solution for the prevailing industry problems: availability and accessibility. With teleQ we could really take the burden off of healthcare employees and as a result patient satisfaction immediately increased. Soon we were visiting new customers and we currently have an extensive portfolio in the Netherlands with GP practices, hospitals, and dentists for example.” Tom Ammerlaan who also works as an account manager comments further: “We often hear ‘Where have you been all these years?’ This is extremely motivating to continue to develop Aurora teleQ. We never stand still.”

Aurora Innovation operates in the Netherlands with customer support for sales, implementation and training. According to Marcel, it’s important that the entire team works together to support customers in the best way “That’s why we always show new employees every part of our company. They participate in sales, installation, after sales, training, payments, etc. It gives each team member a mutual understanding of the company and promotes a streamlined way of working in order to provide the best possible customer service.”

Engineering

Aurora teleQ as a product has grown along with the increase in personnel and customers. New product features have been introduced in collaboration with customers to help them provide the best possible service and availability. New product features such as a chat function within a healthcare organisation, or video calling. Tom Ammerlaan elaborates further: “We’re constantly developing, testing and adapting to how the market reacts to new product features in order to help decrease the workload in the healthcare industry. For example, we’re currently working on specific integrations so that Aurora teleQ improves the connection to external customer systems. A good example is the collaboration with Flexdokters, in which patients have 24/7 access to digital care in the Netherlands and abroad. Thanks to the connection with our platform, patients can reach a Dutch doctor in America in the middle of the night.”

Future-proof

Aurora Innovation continues to develop teleQ in order to prepare for the coming years and support new developments within the healthcare industry. Future-proofing not only refers to adapting to changes such as an increasingly ageing target group and the increasing pressure on healthcare providers, but also adapting to the emerging possibilities of artificial intelligence. Marcel elaborates: “A.I. can take over simple tasks, providing more time for healthcare employees and their ability to serve patients. As we always say: It’s about time!” In addition, Aurora Innovation in the Netherlands is looking to expand, as Tom states: “The goal is to eventually become the number 1 choice for patient contact management in Europe! It’s feasible, but we need to look for more collaborations to do this.”

Beautiful memories

Over the past ten years, the company has experienced many beautiful moments. The signing of the contract with Amsterdam UMC was certainly one of them. The Dutch hospital even commissioned a cost-benefit analysis that the Aurora Innovation team is particularly proud of, as Tom explains: “It took us at least 2.5 years to prepare and run pilots, but the results are solid. We now have a great cooperation and many satisfied employees and patients.” As Marcel elaborates: “I’m also proud of the initiative we took to ensure that refugees in the Netherlands could seek help through Aurora teleQ in their own language fairly soon after the war in Ukraine started. This is again thanks to the collaboration with an external party. We truly believe in the power of synergy.”

More information about Aurora teleQ can be found on www.aurorainnovation.nl

Congratulations from Sweden

“First of all, we would like to congratulate our team in the Netherlands on their anniversary!”, says Gustaf Leijonhufvud, director of the parent company Aurora Innovation. “The reason why we chose the Netherlands, in addition to Finland, Spain and Sweden, is that the country has larger care centres with a large volume of patients. Our estimate was that because of the patient volume, there’s a need to support the Dutch healthcare providers in streamlining their patient contacts through Aurora teleQ. At the same time, we now see that smaller scale healthcare practices greatly benefit from our communication platform, especially since the trend is growing to take joint responsibility for groups of patients.”