Travel VIP App: From Emergency Rooms to Instant Care Qorus-NTT DATA Innovation in Insurance Awards 2026

Concept and Objectives
Travel VIP App was designed to reinvent the travel insurance experience through a digital-first medical journey. Its core objective is to position telemedicine as the primary entry point to care—particularly for high-frequency, low-acuity conditions such as respiratory infections, gastrointestinal issues, mild fevers, or urinary tract infections.

Beyond convenience, the objective was structural: reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, accelerate resolution times, improve customer satisfaction, and strengthen claims predictability.

Reasons Behind the Initiative
Travelers frequently face minor but disruptive health issues abroad. In many countries, even basic medications—such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, or treatments for common infections—require a local prescription. Without immediate access to a licensed physician authorized to prescribe in that country, travelers often default to hospital visits simply to obtain medication.

We identified this friction point as both a customer experience gap and a cost driver.

State of Competition
While telemedicine is increasingly common in travel insurance, many solutions are limited to medical advice. Patients often still need to visit a local provider to obtain prescriptions, fragmenting the experience and increasing claim costs.

Travel VIP App changes this dynamic. Our network of physicians is licensed to prescribe in the traveler’s country of destination, enabling complete case resolution—consultation, prescription, and follow-up—within one digital pathway. In markets where prescriptions are mandatory for even simple medications, this capability is a true game changer.

Sources of Inspiration
The project was inspired by digital healthcare models that use telemedicine as structured clinical triage, not just as virtual consultation. We applied this concept to travel insurance, integrating care navigation, prescription capability, geolocation, and claims management into one ecosystem.

Departments Involved
The initiative required coordinated efforts from Medical Services, Assistance Operations, Claims, IT & Digital Transformation, Legal & Compliance (to ensure prescription licensing frameworks), Product Development, Marketing and Commercial teams.

Main Results So Far
Positioning telemedicine as the first step in care has generated measurable impact:

• Over 22% reduction in total claims cost

• Approximately 20% improvement in loss ratio

• Reduced emergency room utilization for low-severity cases

• Faster case resolution and higher traveler satisfaction

By eliminating unnecessary in-person visits—particularly those driven solely by prescription requirements—we have improved both experience and sustainability.