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Artera’s Journey: Redefining Patient Communication with AI

Why Patient Communication Matters Now

Healthcare is under intense pressure – staffing shortages, rising patient demands, and administrative complexity. Artera (formerly WELL Health) helps providers meet these challenges with secure, bidirectional, multilingual messaging – delivered in each patient’s preferred channel (text, email, IVR, webchat). Our platform integrates across EHRs and digital tools to orchestrate the entire patient conversation into one connected experience – so teams can operate efficiently and patients get the access and guidance they need.

Fast Facts

  • Company Type: Privately held (SaaS)
  • Industry: Digital health / patient engagement
  • Founded: April 2015
  • Founders: Guillaume de Zwirek and Joe Tischler
  • Headquarters: Santa Barbara, California
  • Key People: Guillaume de Zwirek (CEO & Co-Founder), Ashu Agte (CTO), Tom McIntyre (COO), Zach Wood (CPO), Adrianna Hosford (Chief Communications Officer & Head of Marketing), Kari Baldonado (GM, Artera Government Solutions)
  • Employees: 200-500
  • Website: https://artera.io/ 

By the Numbers

  • Used by 1,000+ healthcare systems and federal agencies (2025)
  • Facilitates ~2.2 billion patient messages annually
  • Reaches 100+ million patients

Our Mission

We enable bidirectional, secure, multilingual conversations between providers and patients across SMS, email, IVR, and webchat – integrated with leading EHRs and digital health tools – so health systems can see, manage, and optimize all patient communications across vendors, departments, users, and the EHR in one place.

Milestones & Momentum

Early Days & Growth

Strategic Partnerships

Pandemic Response & Impact

  • Launched Rapid Release Program (48-hour implementation) to manage urgent, large-scale patient communications.
  • At Houston Methodist, enabled 260,000+ texts in a single day for virtual care education and scheduling.
  • Supported virtual waiting rooms for safer in-person visits.
  • Sent 81 million COVID-related messages and facilitated 11+ million vaccine appointments.

Brand Evolution & Investment in R&D

  • 2022: Invested $32M in R&D to accelerate innovation in patient communications.
  • October 2022: Rebranded from WELL Health to Artera – reflecting our belief that communication is the artery of care – launching a new logo and purple brand system.

Product Innovation (Highlights)

  • Call-to-Text (2021): Let patients switch from phone hold to live text with staff.
  • Flows Agents (formerly ChatAssist AI, 2021): NLU-powered agents that automate multi-step patient conversations, understanding millions of unstructured responses across channels.
  • Artera Referrals (2024): Automated referral outreach, instant responses, self-scheduling, and pre-visit workflows – plus configuration, filtering, throttling, and writebacks.
  • Artera Harmony (2023): Orchestrates messaging across the enterprise; integrates vendors and departments to manage communication workflows.
    • Flows (automated multi-step sequences using NLU)
    • Homepage with Next Best Actions (centralized dashboard and prioritization)
    • Native Reporting Dashboards (built-in analytics and ROI)
    • Message Categorization (machine learning to classify messages)
    • Marketplace: 50+ digital health vendors using Artera’s open APIs (e.g., Arcadia, Blockit, Bright.md, Flywire, Gozio Health, RevSpring, Tonic, WebMD Ignite, Xealth)
  • Artera Government Solutions (formerly AudioCARE): 30+ years supporting federal agencies (VA, DoD, IHS) across pharmacy, scheduling, financial, and clinical communications via phone, text, email, and web.

2024–2025 Launches – Patient Communication Platform

  • Artera Intake & Payments (June 2024): Digital forms, automated intake, and billing – replacing manual workflows.
  • Artera ScheduleCare (June 2024): Online self-scheduling and automated waitlisting to improve access.
  • Artera Pulse Outreach (Sept 2024): Dynamic, recurring outreach from any data source to close care gaps and improve outcomes; auto-refreshing cohort lists.
  • Artera Branded Messaging (Sept 2024): Logo, images, and org info in the patient’s SMS app for a branded, trusted experience.
  • Artera Care Navigator (Sept 2024): Clinical and post-discharge communication tools that connect hospital care with follow-up treatment at scale.
  • Artera Connection Hub (Sept 2024): Interoperability and reporting suite; APIs and preferences framework for personalized experiences across systems.
  • Staff AI Co-Pilot (Oct 2024): Assists staff with real-time translation, predictive text, message shortening, and conversation summaries – speeding responses and reducing workload.
  • Insights AI Co-Pilot (Oct 2024): Turns engagement data into action; includes Smart No-Show Reports to predict missed appointments and intervene proactively.
  • AI Agents – Voice & Text (Spring 2025): Intelligent, autonomous agents that handle workflows, automate routine tasks, and support decision-making.

Compliance & Security – SaaS in Healthcare

Artera has an ongoing commitment to the highest standards for compliance, security, and privacy. HITRUST Certified since 2019 | ISO 27001 | ISO 27017 | ISO 27701 | ISO 27018 | SOC 2 Type 2 | Visit the Artera Trust Center for more information.

“Artera’s security program is particularly impressive, and security has clearly been a primary focus since the company’s beginning…” – Deepak Chaudhry, BDO

Community & Events

  • Artera Heartbeat (May 2023): Inaugural customer conference in New Orleans for patient access, digital innovation, PX, population health, IT/IS, and revenue cycle leaders.
  • Artera Heartbeat (Sept 2024): Nearly 300 healthcare leaders from 100+ health systems; 40+ sessions; speakers included David Shulkin (former VA Secretary) and Chaunté Lowe (4× Olympian, cancer survivor, medalist).

Recognition & Awards

[Download the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Report]

What We Enable – Today

  • Unified, bidirectional patient communications across SMS, email, IVR, and webchat
  • AI-powered virtual agents that automate multi-step conversations
  • Enterprise orchestration across vendors, departments, and EHRs
  • Multilingual engagement in 109 languages
  • Data-driven operations via dashboards, analytics, and AI insights
  • Secure, compliant infrastructure built for healthcare at scale

Looking Ahead

We’re continuing to push the frontier of agentic AI in patient engagement – elevating access, experience, and outcomes while reducing the administrative load on care teams. With a growing ecosystem of partners, a robust product roadmap, and deep EHR integrations, Artera is building the connective tissue for patient communication – securely and at scale.

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