Ekko · how the pieces fit
Patients stay on WhatsApp.
Ekko is where the clinic works.
Three layers, three different jobs. WhatsApp is the patient's front door. Ekko is the clinic's workspace. The EMR keeps the record. Nothing asks the patient to change.
Every patient message travels over WhatsApp in both directions. The Ekko app carries items the clinic chooses to keep outside WhatsApp — PIN-protected files and private messages from the doctor. Ekko sits between them and the EMR, and gives the clinic a place to see who replied, how long the patient waited, and what was said.
How a stranger becomes a patient
This is the step most people miss. Someone who messages your WhatsApp number is an enquiry, not a patient. Registering them in Plato is what promotes them — and the enquiry history comes with them.
Until the patient exists in Plato there is nothing to attach the conversation to, which is why an enquiry has no doctor and no record. After the sync, the same person appears in the Patients tab, the welcome email goes out automatically, and staff assign a doctor.
How the app gets into the patient's hands
Routine WhatsApp conversations do not require a patient to download Ekko. The app arrives on its own, the first time something is sent that WhatsApp shouldn't carry.
The patient's Ekko account is created automatically when staff register them in Plato, so the prompt leads to an account that already exists — they download the app and sign in, without creating a separate account. The email carries no message content, and says so on its face: “This message cannot be shared on WhatsApp or regular email for your privacy.”
Why the reply window costs money
WhatsApp closes a conversation 24 hours after the patient's last message. Inside the window, replies are free. Outside it, the clinic can only send a pre-approved template, and Meta charges for each one. Ekko shows the clock so staff know which side of it they are on.
Templates are approved and stored per WhatsApp number, so each location keeps its own set. This is also the strongest argument for the Ekko channel: messages sent in Ekko have no window and no per-message cost, which is why reminders and documents go there.
Why a patient keeps the app
The app isn't one clinic's app. A patient holds every doctor they see in the same place, and adds the next one by scanning a code. That is the reason a download sticks — and it is something a WhatsApp thread alone may not provide.
Each clinic that joins makes the app more useful to patients who already have it, and each patient who already has it makes the next clinic easier to onboard. The clinic gets structure either way — the network is what the patient gets, and it is the honest answer to “why would my patients download another app?”
Bring one location's WhatsApp inbox to the demo
Thirty minutes. We'll show you what the last month of that inbox would look like in Ekko — who replied, how long patients waited, and what you'd be able to show if anyone asked.