A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the AHA Summit in beautiful San Diego, the location of my very first work trip – ten years ago for an AHIMA conference! The city is just as beautiful as I remember. As a marketer, I appreciate conferences that take advantage of the special surroundings (see the pool-side reception overlooking San Diego Bay on Monday evening!). The event offered profound insights into healthcare innovation and consumer empowerment. Here are my key takeaways from standout sessions:
Innovating for Population Health: Redefining Care Delivery
I gravitate toward population health sessions at healthcare conferences because I’m a glass-half-full person. While we’ve been having the same conversations about how it COULD change the industry and care delivery, we still need to get there.
Dr. Samuel “Buddy” Hammerman from Select Medical spoke about the shift from traditional healthcare settings to delivering high-quality care in patients’ homes. This approach enhances patient satisfaction, particularly in post-operative care, through telemedicine. Who wants to drive into a routine appointment when a video visit will work?
Trung “Andy” Dang of Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group emphasized the importance of addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) by focusing on community health workers and data exchange with community organizations to close care gaps and improve health outcomes. Community organizations are uniquely positioned to help drive health outcomes by having regular chats with community members, and including healthcare is a no-brainer.
Finally, Tammy Lundstrom from Trinity Health shared how their commitment to health equity involves examining SOGI data and other measures to identify and address care disparities. She also shared how using the data to redefine care delivery was essential. For example, they were doing really well with same-day appointments and meeting those patients’ needs, but, were missing the mark for patients who needed appointments in the next few weeks vs. ‘today.’
Empowering Healthcare Consumers: Bridging the Marketing and IS Systems
This session, led by Lifebridge’s CMO Brian Deffaa and CIO Tressa Springmann, highlighted the shift from viewing patients as mere care recipients to seeing them as consumers.
Brian emphasized the difference between “doing digital” and “being digital,” while Tressa pointed out that “data isn’t a department,” stressing the need for data integration across all functions. They discussed using EHR data in marketing to close care gaps, which showed the power of integrating data – and using the data in marketing, gasp! – to improve patient outcomes.
Highlighting convenience as a key driver, they simplified online scheduling from 500 to 10 appointment types, boosting adoption. The importance of a mobile-first approach was underscored by the fact that 32% of online appointments were booked after hours, emphasizing the need for seamless digital experiences.
The 2024 AHA Summit was a valuable platform for discussing pivotal healthcare topics, with a focus on innovation, equity, and consumer empowerment.
