Founded in 1996, CURE International is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Christian organization with a network of charitable hospitals and surgical programs. The largest provider of specialty surgical care in the developing world, CURE operates hospitals and programs in 30 countries worldwide where patients receive surgical treatment regardless of gender, religion, or ethnicity. Since its first hospital opened in Kenya in 1998, CURE has had more than 2.8 million outpatient visits, provided more than 204,000 life-changing surgeries, and trained more than 7,200 medical professionals.

Beginning a technology journey to bring care to more children

When Joel Worrall first joined CURE in 2009, the international not-for-profit was just beginning its technology journey. “One of the great things about working at CURE is that we’re at the intersection of two sectors that have a real need for technology innovation: healthcare and non-profit,” says Worrall.

Delivering innovative software for CURE was not without its challenges. “Right after we launched the CURE.org website and the CUREkids platform, we ran into a major performance problem that we couldn’t diagnose,” says Worrall. “Every day for 60 days the website crashed while we tried to diagnose the problem.” That was when Worrall turned to New Relic for software analytics that would provide the visibility Worrall’s team needed to fix performance issues.

“We installed New Relic and we knew exactly what was wrong within an hour,” says Worrall. “A day later, the problem was fixed and two weeks later, the site was running three times faster than it had ever run before.” It was an auspicious beginning to CURE’s technology journey—one that paralleled and intersected with New Relic’s own software analytics path.

“I sincerely believe CURE is becoming as well known for our innovative technology as we are for healing children.”

Dale Brantner President and Chief Executive Officer, CURE International

Gaining insight into every aspect of the operation

Today CURE has New Relic deployed across all of its systems, taking advantage of every tool that New Relic offers. In addition to monitoring the website and all the systems that CURE uses for communications, marketing, and fund raising, the organization also relies on New Relic to monitor the systems that are installed in its hospitals and that are running in the cloud supporting field work.

“With New Relic, we have the opportunity to understand the user experience and performance of each system in each of our hospitals in real time,” says Worrall. “We've got metrics that we track on a regular basis, and thresholds that we monitor to ensure that our users have a good experience regardless of device.”

It’s not only the technology team that relies on New Relic. The digital marketing staff at CURE uses New Relic to understand what’s happening on the website, including which stories are trending and who the most active advocates are for the kids needing treatment. “That data helps us make better decisions about how to market, communicate, and reach more people, so that we can heal more kids,” says Worrall.

The CURE board of directors regularly reviews metrics from New Relic to understand the effectiveness and usage of the CURE technology. Even CURE donors see real-time data from New Relic on the CURE.org website, including weekly statistics on the number of actions taken and the number of people who decided to become involved.

“We literally couldn't do what we do without New Relic. It saves us hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in people time and software costs.”

Joel Worrall Chief Technology Officer, CURE International

Saving money that goes to treating more kids

The technology journey for CURE has transformed the way the organization approaches nearly every aspect of its mission. “Technology is now driving almost everything we do,” says Worrall. “We’re using it to tell the stories of the kids we serve, drive growth in the number of donors and the size of donations, and serve people with better quality using ground-breaking open source software for hospitals.”

Worrall must do all that and more with as little cost as possible. For every donation made to CURE, the organization commits to using over 90% directly for the delivery of charitable care. “We literally couldn't do what we do without New Relic,” says Worrall. “It saves us hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in people time and software costs.” That savings allows CURE to serve more kids in need of life-changing treatment.

For CURE, the insight it gets from New Relic is critical to supporting its mission. “The reality today is that if you’re not using software analytics, you don’t really care about your product or the customer experience,” says Worrall. “For a not-for-profit like CURE, the website has to be up at all times and it has to be ready to accept donations. We absolutely have to be able to understand and monitor the donor experience anytime and anywhere in the world.”

Despite its tremendous progress, the technology work has only just begun for CURE. “If we get smarter about the work that we're doing, we can serve more kids and do even more good,” says Worrall. “Technology is a huge part of that and New Relic is a great partner in helping us achieve our goal of ending the physical and emotional pain of children with disabilities.”