Equity in Healthcare Insights from Mad*Pow’s 2022 Health Experience Design Conference
Mad*Pow believes in the power of design to drive much-needed change in the Healthcare industry. The Health Experience Design Conference (HXD) provides a unique crossroads for a diverse community of executives and practitioners in design, innovation, research, strategy, and technology to help accelerate the transformation of our health system. Attracting visionaries across the health ecosystem, this two-day conference included inspiring presentations, workshops, and discussions that will help drive realworld change. We have spent the last few years reflecting on what is broken in the healthcare space and what is broken in society. The scale and scope of these challenges became so much more apparent under the microscope of the pandemic — from racial disparities in health and quality of care to the pandemic — exacerbated mental health crisis that is affecting a large majority of the population.
Meanwhile, from an advancement perspective, we’ve seen the equivalent of a Cambrian explosion in digital health and vaccine development, moving the industry years ahead in a matter of weeks and months. If you’d asked attendees at HXD 2019 if the entire US healthcare system could pivot to telehealth nearly overnight, the overwhelming answer would be dismissive laughter. Let alone the idea that we could bring not one but three vaccines to market in 1 year. For a time, the pandemic forced the
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou
industry to start thinking and acting like Designers. The balance between medical advancements and acknowledging our weaknesses offers an invitation to dig deeper, innovate faster, and empathize harder. To make deliberate, informed choices that will create the Healthcare industry of the future to address these challenges.
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: Considers the full range of human diversity to create equitable experiences and foster a sense of belonging — This includes ability, gender, age, race, culture, and socio-economic status.
Over the two-day 2022 HXD conference, speakers across the healthcare industry reflected on these overarching trends: • • • •
Evolution & Innovation Improving Experiences Designing for Optimal Mental Health The Science of Behavior Change
“Innovation is a noun and a verb.”
teams must adjust their processes, pivot
— Taura Barr
The pandemic forced life sciences
CEO, Consultant & Coach | TauraBarr.com
on their priorities, and make space for new ways of working.
companies to stretch, adapt, and change under extreme circumstances. These innovations demonstrate that meaningful
Evolution and Innovation
change is possible even within restrictive regulatory environments and deeply
There has been (and continues to be) a
ingrained corporate cultures, from record-
mass exodus of frontline workers from the
fast vaccine development to getting
field due to burnout. Current statistics say
drugs to patients facing pandemic-driven
that up to 30% of healthcare workers plan
financial hardship.
to leave the field in 2022, from nurses to doctors to mental health providers.
As we continue to navigate public health crises and shifts in the job market, teams
This long-term decay, which started pre-
are encouraged to take a deep look at
pandemic, has only gotten worse, and the
their own design practices to build more
nursing shortage is particularly problematic.
inclusive and equity-based approaches.
Without good nursing care, the system breaks down because people can’t get the care and the treatments they need when
system much worse.
The Design industry is beginning to recognize the importance of designing “with” rather than “for” communities— especially marginalized, underrepresented, and vulnerable ones.
Over the last few years, as we’ve all had
How are you providing value to your organization and your employees?
they need them. And while this will affect everyone, it will, of course, affect those already underserved by the healthcare
to navigate this volatile and uncertain time, it’s made us investigate the value of innovation – what value it brings to health organizations and the people they serve – and where we might fall short. To become more responsive, adaptable, and agile,
Improving Experiences Health insurance companies desire to play a significant role in managing the health of their members - but barriers exist everywhere, from scheduling an appointment to filing a complaint to accessing customer support. Healthcare providers need to fundamentally rebuild their experiences for a connected world to meet consumer expectations. This transformation requires us to elevate our thinking beyond simply making products easier to use. Instead, it requires us to focus on human-to-human interactions first and design digital experiences as an extension of them, to transform how we serve patients across every touchpoint, digital and physical. Only then can we begin to determine how to orchestrate a member-centric experience and ultimately improve outcomes.
“The modern consumer expects all of their experiences to be flawless and friction-free, but often has low confidence that this expectation will be met in their healthcare journey.” — Jon Robinson Director of Product Design | Pager
The evolution from a healthcare finance company to a health management company requires a member-centric view to be truly successful, a standpoint traditional health insurance companies weren’t built around. How can we fully support patients, providers, and payers in an increasingly complex care environment while creating member-centric experiences that improve outcomes?
The (Potential) Future of Healthcare Wearables in Action
see how supplying wearable health technology to their consumers and
Wearable healthcare technology
employees is beneficial. The ability
is one of the latest trends in
to measure person-place interactions
medical monitoring devices.
sets the stage for a future state
Growing demand for wearables
where technology can respond to
has generated a booming market,
and optimize human experience.
and now insurers and companies
“We are using wearable data to develop target design and behavioral goals, create data-driven experience maps, and monitor person-place interactions over time and across built environment settings for continuous improvement.” — Meredith Banasiak Director of Research | BA/Science; Boulder Associates Architects
“Hacking” Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Phnam Bagley and her company, Nonfiction, use science fiction
•
(on earth) and make tasty, appealinglooking food for astronauts (in space) •
Develop a way for firefighters to see more clearly in dark, smoke-
concepts to reimagine the future,
filled spaces
working only in novel tech, with sustainable development goals
Make plant-based food appetizing
•
Build spaces that house batteries
and where there is a viable path
for remote communities, exclusively
to execution and success. Phnam
run by women
imagined a future where we could:
•
Reimagine school to resemble the components of a living organism
•
Approach therapy as a multisensory experience
Designing for Optimal Mental Health
Navigating the need for privacy in mental health care vs. access to data for planning
Designing for optimal mental health is
& design is a challenge. Every state has
critical—from employers designing return-
different regulations related to mental
to-work strategies, to health systems and
health, so any solution must be able to
clinicians dealing with an increased patient
accommodate these differences. In addition
need for mental health care, to companies
to legal regulations, access to care due to
developing solutions to help overcome the
distance can also play a huge factor. It’s
shortage of treatment professionals. This
clear that one-size-fits-all solutions don’t
intense, immediate need for sustainable
work when it comes to mental health - we
mental healthcare has created an
need to create systems and experiences that
opportunity to empower individuals to
can be adjusted to accommodate individual
take charge of their mental health through
needs & cultural considerations.
solutions that apply design thinking, health literacy, and behavioral science to meet them where they’re at.
“The paradigm is starting to shift from a Medical model of disability where a person/group is seen as broken or flawed if they don’t fit their environment, to a Social model of disability where the environment is seen as broken because it excludes a person/group.” — Lauren McAuliffe Would words like disorder and deficit still apply if experiences were designed with neurodiversity at the center, not the margins? How will you authentically build trust between those tools and programs and the people engaging in care/self-care?
Senior Visual Experience Designer | Mad*Pow
“Behavioral solutions require iteration and test, learn, adapt cycles. Be sure to test early and often.” — Dustin DiTommaso
Senior Vice President, Behavior Change Design | Mad*Pow
environmental contexts – such as culture, political landscape, and time horizons – that your populations live in (and through), as many social/behavioral theories do not consider. The products and services (i.e., interventions) we develop are intended to change people’s behaviors in the real
The Science of Behavior Change Behaviors are among the most critical factors that influence health. Our attempts to improve the health of those who are ill (e.g., initiating and adhering to treatments), those who are well (e.g., stopping smoking),
world. These behavioral changes, in turn, are linked and lead to the broader outcomes we’re aiming to achieve. Both analog and digital solutions can deliver impact, but we must understand which modalities will best fit your problem, space, and population, and why!
and those who deliver care depend on behavior change. Designing effective behavior change interventions requires more than just intuition and creativity. It requires the application of behavioral science – its theories, methods, and evidence through every phase of the design process. Changing behavior requires understanding what influences behavior in context. You’ll want to be particularly mindful of social and
Single social and behavioral theories can be a valuable place to start – but they might be too limiting. It’s better to base your intervention research and design on broader influencers. Testing solutions can start with small-scale formative evaluations – feasibility, usability, acceptability to iterative, improve, or pivot your design completely.
We believe that design is powerful and can help us positively impact people’s lives. We use it to help people set goals and reach them. Our team comes to work each day with a passion for assisting clients in improving health, deliver financial wellbeing, and solve some of the most wicked social problems we face, from poverty to sustainability. This involves a deep understanding of customer behavior, designing for experience innovation, and facilitating the kind of collaboration that makes your dreams a reality.
HOW CAN MAD*POW HELP YOU? FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Tiffany Mura SVP, Client Experience & Strategy, Health Practice Lead tmura@madpow.net
The HXD conference focuses on improving health experiences through strategic design. Founded in 2010, the conference attracts more than 300 executives, innovators, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and clinicians. View previous HXD presentations at HXDConf.com. VIEW NOW