Judge's comments:

This disrupted an existing real-world behaviour, off a true latent need, by enabling easy access to health. Simplifying so many services for both patients and doctors. A customer centred, digital first approach to the medical industry, potentially paving the way to health innovation.

Description:

Tend is NZ’s only digital-first, full service GP care provider.

Tend’s mission is to make Aotearoa the healthiest country in the world. This requires attracting excellent clinicians, serving patients more efficiently, and delivering more effective healthcare - so patients need their doctor less. In particular, we strive to better serve Maori and Pasifika patients and improve health outcomes in these communities.

Person-centered design is a huge part of Tend’s strategy. We’ve utilised user research, iterative product design and collaborative service design to launch the future of healthcare for NZ.

The Tend app makes it easier and more affordable for people to manage their health through:

Online consultations
High-quality video consults reduce travel and time off work. Evening and weekend appointments help patients attend to issues sooner. Online consults reduce exposure to disease for both patients and clinicians - vital during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Easy medication management
Managing ongoing medications is time consuming, confusing and costly for patients. Our Prescription Request feature helps patients understand whether they need an appointment to get a repeat and ensure GPs have all the information they need to issue ePrescriptions right away.

Pro-active health reminders
No more letters to an address you left 3 years ago. Tend patients get timely reminders about life-saving health tasks with the means to book immediately. Tend monitors tasks with follow-up reminders ensuring patients follow through.

Secure messaging
Asynchronous care through secure messaging reduces the need for appointments in many cases and creates an organised record of care between patients and their care team.

Appointment history & notes
Patients struggle to remember what was discussed in appointments. Patient access to appointment notes boosts adherence to care plans and health outcomes.

Clinicians’ application
‘Tender’ makes clinicians’ lives easier by removing admin and the poor UX that defines health industry software. Tend clinicians co-design their tools, see daily product updates, and contribute to improvements that mean less time wasted on poorly designed interfaces and more time caring for patients.

Impact
The Tend app has achieved 100% 5 star reviews in Google and App stores, and reviews show users’ delight with the ease of use and convenience the app provides. 80% of our appointments are with enrolled patients, which has exceeded business targets. Tend has an enrolled Maori population of 13% (Auckland DHB Maori population: 9%).

The Tend app was designed and built by a team of 2 designers, 4 engineers and 2 product managers between Jan - Oct 2020.