Interviews

Paving the way to a diverse medical workforce starts with med schools

April 17, 2024 - When the medical workforce is reflective of the patients it treats, everyone wins. But getting there isn’t going to be an overnight process; instead, leaders in medical education need to start focusing on creating pathways to a career in healthcare. Indeed, a diverse medical workforce is ideal for medicine, experts are increasingly recognizing, in large part because it increases...

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How patient experience data prompted patient engagement improvements

by Sara Heath

Ensuring an optimal patient experience might be a personal and professional passion for Shanna McCann, a senior experience coach at Children’s Minnesota Pediatric Hospital, but she knows making those improvements relies on cold, hard...

Protecting patient data sharing & ownership with ethical data use

by Sara Heath

In pursuit of consumer-centered healthcare, the medical industry has seen the growing prominence of patient data sharing. As consumerism has gripped the healthcare industry, health systems across the country are working to crack the code...

A consumer-obsessed strategy is key to rebuilding primary care

by Sara Heath

While healthcare consumerism has reshaped the way patients engage and feel empowered in their care, for many health systems, it’s had the opposite effect, fragmenting patient care access and threatening the continuity of primary care...

In medicine’s push for workforce diversity, culture of belonging is key

by Sara Heath

In the past decade, and especially in the last five years, healthcare has been working to crack the code of embedding antiracism into the fabric of the industry through workforce diversity. But far from the quotas sometimes conjured when...

Selecting the Right Online Appointment Scheduling Tools for Pediatrics

by Sara Heath

The patient access team at Nicklaus Children’s Health System knew it would have a lot of needs as it shopped around for a digital self-scheduling option. The Miami-based hospital system serves a pediatric population, 60 percent of...

How Family Physicians Can Solve US Maternal Health Problems

by Sara Heath

It’s not a secret that healthcare is staring down a maternal mortality problem. But what might be less known is the critical role family physicians can play in ameliorating it. “This country has a lot of work to do on...

Behind Epic’s Award-Winning MyChart Patient Portal Advancements

by Sara Heath

Epic Systems thinks it’s on the brink of a new frontier in patient portal use, saying MyChart is stock-full of the functionalities consumers want, and users are now leveraging it to move the needle on clinical outcomes and the...

2024 to Bring Thoughtful Patient Engagement Tech Investments

by Sara Heath

Could 2024 be the year for the patient engagement technology boom? It might be, provided clinics and hospitals can access the right technology in a way that solves not just patient experience but also workforce management problems,...

Montefiore’s Community Health Worker Role a Bridge to Medical Workforce

by Sara Heath

At Montefiore Medical Center, the Community Health Worker Institute (CHWI) is a pipeline to the healthcare workforce. Sure, the actual “community health worker,” or CHW, title is an entry-level job, but it’s a key...

Are Doulas the Key to Closing Maternal Mental Health Treatment Gaps?

by Sara Heath

NewYork-Presbyterian wants to do something about the nation’s maternal mental health crisis. In an effort to prepare pregnant people in their third trimesters for their new, child-filled lives, the healthcare organization is tapping...

Behind Walgreens’ Move on Prescription Drug Costs, Patient Experience

by Sara Heath

Walgreens is pushing its newest prescription drug cost savings tool as the retail health provider continues to vie for the pharmacy as a key part of the overall patient experience. Riding tailwinds indicating that patients are...

How Advocate Health Uses Patient Communication IT to Close Care Gaps

by Sara Heath

Advocate Health wants to be the safety net for patients managing care gaps, using patient engagement technology to streamline the scheduling process. After all, healthcare isn’t easy to navigate, especially for patients who have...

‘Every Patient, Every Time’: Boosting Techquity in Patient Portal Use

by Sara Heath

For many healthcare organizations, the patient portal has become the place where patients access the healthcare system and keep coming back. It’s a wraparound digital experience that meets the moment on healthcare consumerism, but if...

As Maternal & Infant Health Falter, Advocacy Is Key to Progress

by Sara Heath

As it continues to pave the road to progress with data, March of Dimes is using its advocacy prowess to also call for policy and medical device solutions to the nation’s growing maternal and infant health crisis. Paired with a new...

Using Shield Laws to Protect Interstate Patient Access to Abortion Care

by Sara Heath

In the aftermath of the 2022 Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see interstate patient access to abortion care. The ruling, which virtually upended the precedent...

How Data Informs Patient-Centered Medication Adherence Work

by Sara Heath

For Armando Hinojosa, MD, the data used to flag medication adherence isn’t the end-all, be-all. Indeed, medication trackers are important tools for making sure his patients at the Laredo, Texas-based SeniorMed get the...

Providence Approaches Healthcare Digital Innovation With Provider Expertise

by Sara Heath

Providence health system knows something about digital tools in the healthcare consumer world, with its latest incubated technology, Praia Health, being proof of the power of stakeholder input and design. As a health system serving...

Taking STI Screening Access to Community-Based Organizations

by Sara Heath

When Joshua O’Neal, sexual health program director at the Fulton County Board of Health (FCBOH) in Georgia, took on a project to improve patient access to STI testing, he didn’t know he’d be facing a perfect storm of...

How Providers Can Meet Varying Levels of Patient Health Literacy

by Sara Heath

To say patient health literacy is important to patient engagement, activation, and experience is not a particularly blistering-hot take. Patient health literacy, or more specifically, personal health literacy, refers to an...