Luma Health is a company that has developed a Patient Success Platform that unifies and automates each of a patient’s healthcare journeys (access and operational, clinical, and financial) to help them be healthier. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Luma Health co-founder and CEO Adnan Iqbal to learn more about the company.
Adnan Iqbal’s Background
What is Adnan Iqbal’s background? Iqbal said:
“I’m a biologist by background. I studied biology as an undergrad and in grad school, and then grew as a biologist and as a healthcare professional at Genentech, an innovative biotech company here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I kind of stumbled into healthcare technology.”
“Playing soccer as an undergrad at UC Berkeley, I tore my ACL my sophomore year. My healthcare provider told me it would be three weeks before I could get an MRI, and I really wanted to be on the soccer field – so I became annoying and called back 10 times between classes until an appointment opened up.”
“In business school, I started to evaluate opportunities where healthcare and technology were coming together, as everyone started to have a mobile phone in their pocket. And that experience was in my head. I reconnected with my college roommate, Tashfeen Ekram, who was completing his radiology fellowship and had patients waiting 6 weeks to be seen at his clinic. We dove right in and asked – is this a problem that is true across the spectrum of healthcare?”
“We learned that the average American waits between 2.5 and 12 weeks for care, and hospitals and clinics typically have a 15-30% unused capacity rate. We connected with our third co-founder, Aditya Bansod, to create a product that would facilitate patient-clinic communication over a text-based platform. And that’s where Luma was born.”
“We like to say that we’ve been fortunate because over nearly a decade of company growth, we’ve never had to pivot from our founding vision to connect patients with their providers.”
Formation Of Luma Health
How did the idea for the company come together? Iqbal shared:
“As a CEO, there are three big parts to my job. One is investor-facing: ensuring strategic alignment between management and the different board members.”
“The second, and one that I love and get a lot of personal satisfaction from, is serving as “chief people officer.” I’m ensuring that everyone at Luma, regardless of how long they’ve been here, is finding real meaning in their work – that they’re excited and motivated. And that means different things to different people. Another important facet of being the “chief people officer” is making sure we have the right leaders, at all levels of the organization. I’m always working on growing and nurturing not just our current leaders, but also our growing force-multipliers and helping them be empowered to make the right decisions.”
“The third big part of my job is strategic direction and keeping everyone in alignment. We meet monthly with every department and ensure that processes are working, the right teams are working on company priorities (sometimes these teams need to be created), and we’re sticking to and measuring our goals.”
“All three of these parts roll up to our core mission to be patient-first. That’s a mission that drives our decision-making. For example, we don’t sell patient data or allow our product to be used to spam patients – that might bring in a lot of money, but it’s just not who we are.”
“Everyone who works here chooses to be here because they actually see the impact of that mission – sometimes in their own families’ care. The focus on our patient-first mission drives our culture of making time for each other, being transparent, and leaving our egos at the door. Any team member can make time with me or any other member of the leadership team, and I love the parts of my day where I spend time with our people.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Iqbal reflected:
“A meaningful period of time was the COVID-19 pandemic, because we could see our work impact lives in real time. Luma was still pretty small at that time, and it was incredible to see the company meet that historical moment and support our customers.”
“In one particular example, Cook County Health in Chicago, Illinois – the second largest county in the country – was a designated COVID-19 vaccination site. We were able to create new products and launch them in weeks to support vaccinations – appointments that were life-transforming, or even life-saving.”
“It was important to make sure that a million people at once could actually access and book an appointment, that their appointments were integrated with the EHR, and that the consumer experience was easy – so those patients could ultimately get their vaccinations. It was really special to be part of that moment at an organization that is truly providing impactful, equitable access.”
“Some other favorite moments have been spending time with the people at Luma and seeing the acceleration of their careers. As an example, I’ve seen a front-line Customer Success Manager grow to be the Head of Customer Success, with an even brighter future ahead. Playing a part in that and helping people achieve things they didn’t even think were possible are some of my favorite memories.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Iqbal explained:
“Luma’s Patient Success Platform includes 30+ out-of-the-box modules, as well as the ability to support entirely custom workflows.”
“Our newest products, Navigator (intelligent patient concierge) and Fax Transform (automated fax processing) are powered by our AI, Spark. Spark is designed to transform some of the most manual and time-consuming parts of the staff and patient experience, including waiting on hold and manually processing referral faxes. Our customers are already seeing amazing results, including 3x faster fax processing at DENT Neurologic Institute and 95% phone call automation at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).”
“The platform helps health systems reach more patients and get them on the schedule with referral and attribution list outreach, messaging in 20+ languages, recall and broadcast messaging, self-scheduling (including web, text, and Google My Business-enabled scheduling), and AI-powered Navigator concierge that enables patients to self-serve via voice or SMS. 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, payments, requests for patient feedback, and recall reminders, along with a simple staff checklist. 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. One example is the ability to message all of a provider’s scheduled patients if the provider can’t make it to the clinic, with personalized links to reschedule.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Iqbal and the team faced in building the company? Iqbal acknowledged:
“A few years ago, healthcare technology had a moment in the sun. But after that has been a period of struggle in our industry writ large. One of our biggest challenges in the past 4 years was sustaining growth in an environment where raising capital was very difficult, risk tolerance has changed in healthcare, and our customers went through very hard times financially. Many companies in our industry couldn’t sustain their growth.”
“The main reason we were able to navigate these hard times and continue to grow 30% year-over-year is because we’ve always been product-led. We have a maniacal focus on our customers, the problems they’re trying to solve, and the products we can build to effectively solve them.”
Evolution Of Luma Health’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Iqbal noted:
“Over the past 9 years, we continued to evolve from an initial set of patient messaging and matching products to now more than 30 unique products that form a complete end-to-end Patient Success Platform, enabling health systems to automate and orchestrate nearly every part of a patient’s journey – access + operational, clinical, and financial. This automation and orchestration is powered by deep integration into as many systems as possible. This integrated systems approach has created a foundation for our future innovation and growth.”
“We did so because we believe that a ‘best-in-breed’ approach, focusing on a particular aspect of the patient journey like communications, creates “digital dead ends” for patients. Every product has been developed in-house, with no acquisitions.”
“We also hear from our customers regularly that they don’t have the bandwidth to set up and maintain many different systems beyond the EHR – their source of truth. We focus on serving as the single “system of action” that can multiply the effectiveness of this EHR source of record.”
“Over the last near-decade, we’ve continually focused on the best possible integration with leading EHRs like Epic, Oracle Health, MEDITECH, eClinicalWorks, athenahealth, NextGen Healthcare, and Greenway Health. We’ve joined the MEDITECH Alliance program as an inaugural member, achieved Oracle Validated Integration Expertise, and partnered with NextGen and Greenway to provide Luma as a native part of those EHRs.”
“As we’ve grown, we’ve also focused on staying up to date with the latest technology available, and deploying it intelligently to support our customers. Our launch of Spark, our AI capabilities using zero-retention generative AI, is the latest example, but we’ve been using TensorFlow models, machine learning, NLP, and LLMs for years.”
“We’ve been fortunate that even as the company has grown, we’ve never had to change course from our original vision. Our goal today, just as it was in 2015, is to help patients be successful in their healthcare journeys. We look forward to connecting one in three Americans to their healthcare over the next year.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Iqbal cited:
— September 2015: Luma in use at first healthcare organization customers
— December 2017: Secured Series A funding, led by US Venture Partners
— January 2020: Served 10 million patients
— April 2021: Scheduled 3 million COVID-19 vaccinations
— July 2021: Served 30 million patients
— November 2021: Secured Series C funding, led by FTV Capital and including strategic investors such as Texas Medical Center, DocuSign, and InHealth Ventures.
— May 2022: Exceeded 200M messages sent between healthcare organizations and patients
— March 2023: Launched Luma Bedrock™, a growing set of powerful best practices for Luma’s products based on data science analysis of millions of data points and patient interactions, combined with expertise from Luma’s implementation managers, engineers, product managers, solutions architects, and technical writers.
— Fall 2023: Expanded to more than 200 full-time staff across the United States, Brazil, Canada, and Europe
— October 2024: Served 100 million patients
— October 2024: Launched Spark, generative AI-powered capabilities
Customer Success Stories
When asking Iqbal about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Luma’s customers have achieved significant success, including:
— $138 million captured in appointment revenue within one year of deploying Luma scheduling at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
— 95% of phone calls were completely automated within one month of deploying Luma’s Navigator (new AI-powered concierge) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
— 70% time savings on fax workflows within one week of deploying Luma’s Fax Transform (new AI-powered fax processing) at DENT Neurologic Institute
— 80 fewer call hours per month and 30% shorter hold times at Northfield Hospital + Clinics using Luma
— 287 hours per month saved at Metro Vein Centers using Luma’s intake
— $1.8 million in annual revenue captured with Luma scheduling at Tenafly Pediatrics
— Patients are seen 33 days sooner with Luma’s waitlist at Maury Regional Health
Find additional customer success stories and videos at https://www.lumahealth.io/learn/.”
Funding
When asking Iqbal about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“Luma’s total funding raised is $160 million, with a $130 Series C funding round following nearly 900% three-year growth.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Iqbal assessed:
“The total addressable healthcare market is upwards of $2.8 trillion. The US healthcare IT market totals $40B and the provider-based healthcare total addressable market is $8.5B, of which $2B is outpatient care.”
“Luma Health currently targets the outpatient care segment for multi-specialty, single specialty, and primary care solutions. Our target market includes mid-size clinics, regional health groups, and enterprise health systems (20 to 500+ providers). The company will soon expand outside the US, tripling our total addressable market.”
“Our buyers range from independent medical providers and office managers at small physician practices, to CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other C suite decision-makers at leading hospitals and health systems.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Iqbal affirmed:
“We see our product quality and reliability as very competitive in the digital health space. 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.”
“In KLAS Research’s report Patient Engagement Platforms 2020, Luma Health tied with EHR vendor Epic for the most solutions validated in use by customers, exceeding capabilities validated in use by competitors including Phreesia, WELL Health (now Artera), Relatient, and many more.”
“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. Luma remains the only platform in the market offering integrated, text-first patient workflows guiding patients across multiple touchpoints including self-scheduling, cancellation/waitlist management, and referrals. 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 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. “
“Deep integration is also crucial. 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, Epic, MEDITECH, eClinicalWorks, Veradigm (fka Allscripts), NextGen, and many more (80+ total). By partnering through programs such as Epic’s Connection Hub and Vendor Services program (fka App Market), Oracle’s partner program, and MEDITECH’s Alliance program, we access and use FHIR APIs to accomplish innovative workflows. We can integrate in any way that the organization chooses (via SFTP, APIs, HL7, and more). 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, 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 schedule in real time. They can also enroll in waitlist offers, 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 using a competitor might require multiple different systems and manual uploads of information from one system to another. This integration allows the EHR to stay the source of truth for staff and clinicians, while Luma serves as a system of action. An innovation our customers frequently cite as innovative is Luma’s ability to embed messaging history with the patient directly in the patient’s chart in the EHR using FHIR APIs, allowing clinicians and staff to review without leaving their daily workspace.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the future company goals? Iqbal concluded:
“We look forward to expanding internationally throughout 2025. We will continue expanding our product offerings in 2025, driving more call center automation, marketing workflow automation, and improving patient financial experience.”
