Revolutionizing digital healthcare support with Tidepool

Tidepool is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to make diabetes data more accessible, meaningful, and actionable; and is one with a very personal origin. Howard Look, Tidepool’s President and CEO just wanted to make sense of his daughter’s diabetes device data. When she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10, she was prescribed a number of devices that would help manage her diabetes but there was a big problem: the data was siloed within proprietary software.

When it comes to managing diabetes, and type 1 diabetes in particular, you need data to make informed decisions about how to dose insulin, critical for those living with type 1 diabetes and potentially fatal if mismanaged. At the time, there was no technology solution available to combine the data from the most popular insulin pumps, which continuously deliver insulin, and leading continuous glucose monitors which generate a new glucose reading every five minutes.

Enter Tidepool and their free, open source software that integrates device data from over 50 insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors, and blood glucose meters in a single, intuitive interface. Since its founding in 2012, Tidepool has developed a reputation as a collaborator within the diabetes industry, and a leader in conversations throughout the medtech regulatory landscape.

The Challenge

Moving forward into a new challenge, Tidepool wants to deliver an FDA-regulated iPhone app that will automate insulin delivery, working interoperably with different insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors called Tidepool Loop. While Tidepool Loop is still under FDA review, they are continuing to develop and iterate upon the infrastructure required to support their users. Chief among these support components is how to deliver high-quality support to their users. More precisely: how to schedule support calls with users that can include highly sensitive, personal health information (PHI), in a HIPAA-compliant platform. It also needed to complement the flexibility and versatility of a team that is remotely distributed.

Tidepool uses Zendesk as their primary support platform to engage with users experiencing any issues. Again, given the nature of their operation, HIPAA compliance is key, and as the Tidepool team sought to expand their support operations to prepare for the need the schedule live calls with future Tidepool Loop users, their investigation for a HIPAA compliant scheduling tool led them to Cronofy.

After evaluating Cronofy’s capabilities, Nick Riggall, Tidepool’s User and Regulatory Operations Lead, knew he had a viable option for Tidepool to leverage.

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“We looked at Calendly but couldn’t use them because they aren’t HIPAA compliant. During the vetting process we found out about the Scheduler and the fact that all Cronofy’s products are HIPAA compliant. Then it was just about functionality. The tool is simple and to the point but it had pretty much all the functionality that we wanted. The launch of the private calendar events setting was the last piece of the puzzle, assuring confidentiality for our team."

Nick Riggall | User and Regulatory Operations Lead

The Solution

After clearing Tidepool’s detailed security evaluation and signing a Business Associate Agreement to ensure Cronofy’s HIPAA compliance, the Tidepool Support team started using the Cronofy Scheduler to deal with the tickets they got that were just too complex to be sorted over email. This is a use case that they expect to grow exponentially when Tidepool Loop has launched.

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In terms of user support, Tidepool is thinking like a modern, agile software company, rather than an old-fashioned healthcare company with a huge call center and stock hold music. They needed a tool that was efficient and capable of creating the best user experience possible, ultimately making their team’s processes seamless. The fact that Cronofy’s Scheduler integrates with Zendesk was a welcome discovery.

"Zendesk is my primary space. I live in that tool. I'm in it the entire workday. Just to have the button right there in the bottom of the comment box in Zendesk is great  Rather than needing to change tabs, I click the Cronofy icon and it brings a little Scheduler window right up there. It saves me 15 to 20 seconds every time by doing it that way - which does add up when you're busy. And once I hit create link, it even drops it into the body for me, which is awesome."

Dave Cintron | Tidepool Support

Initially intended to be a tool leveraged by Tidepool’s Support Team, other teams have taken to Cronofy to improve the efficiency of their processes. Their Clinic Success team uses the Scheduler’s Public Link to create an Office Hours-like experience for inquiring clinicians looking to learn more about Tidepool’s software. Their User Research team is using our new Scheduling Groups and Scheduling Rules features to schedule usability testing sessions with their community for upcoming products in development.

“The versatility of Cronofy’s Scheduler is pretty remarkable. Multiple teams with very different needs can take advantage of Cronofy’s seamless interface and integration with our existing tools. I couldn’t imagine doing my job without it.”

Christopher Snider | Community and Clinic Success Manager

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Find out more about how Cronofy can save your business hundreds of hours, using our secure and HIPAA compliant scheduling and integrations for scheduling meetings with your users and prospects. Check out more about what Tidepool had to say about their experience partnering with Cronofy on our G2 Crowd review page.‍