HLTH conference 2022 takeaways: How the future of healthcare is taking shape

The top five trends we saw at healthcare’s most innovation-focused event.

HLTH conference 2022 in Las Vegas, its fifth annual conference, was one to remember with discussions of critical healthcare issues, breakthrough innovations, and festive entertainment that created a vibrant atmosphere for connections and conversations. The HLTH conference was packed with valuable activities and programs, but here are five trends that stood out:

1. Health equity: Organizations show more accountability to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion among staff and patients served.

The HLTH conference 2022 spotlighted the importance of addressing disparities in access to care. Key themes of having a human-focused approach and using data to serve the right populations echoed across experts and speakers. A great example was Kaiser Permanente highlighting their program on addressing food insecurity for their members. Kaiser bridged data analysis with the human-centered design of their program by analyzing members who were dealing with food insecurity and looking at food in members’ fridges on home visits to gain insights on purchasing habits. They engaged with members through texting, tools on their website, live calls through their call center, and hands-on help through community help workers. Hundreds of thousands of members enrolled in their supplemental food program, resulting in a positive impact through member cost-savings on food expenses and their community wellness.

We saw another great example in a discussion between Centene and Salesforce about using data to create more equitable access to healthcare. Data for personalization and targeting outreach was described as a ‘high tech, low cost’ intervention for complex populations. For patient access, Centene uses data for creating broad and diverse provider networks and care coordination or contact center staff employee base. Championing diversity in its provider networks and employees, Centene aims to provide quality care in rural underserved areas and equip its call center staff with relatability and understanding of its members.

The mission and vision of health equity resonated with us as many Talkdesk healthcare customers serve diverse populations and use our contact center platform to empathetically connect with patients and members. After a lot of emphasis on new channels, it was great to see a focus on thinking about who we build our communications strategy for. Leaders are thinking more about access to the internet, smartphone adoption, primary spoken language, and health tech literacy in designing their engagement approaches.

2. Patient engagement: Solutions are solving more problems for more departments than ever, but many create unintentional communication silos.

Patients are dealing with fragmented consumer journeys in healthcare, as providers adopt point solutions across different departments. Patients have more options for interacting with their health system than ever, but all the different apps used across a given provider’s tech stack are creating disjointed and inconsistent experiences. In the expo hall, there were multiple solutions providers who served the same consumer for different workflows. For a single consumer, one solution provider could accomplish more convenient physician searches and referrals and another different solution provider could be used for clinician communication in the in-patient setting. Disconnects can arise when information from these interaction points is not shared across departments or linked back to a central source of truth, and the patient needs to rehash their story over and over again.

In another session, Intermountain Healthcare shared insights about prioritizing investments in experience as a differentiator to build brand loyalty and market in patients wanting to have care with their organization. Shannon Phillips, President of Intermountain Healthcare, expressed the need for experience to be linked to outcomes—with accountability helping providers to build more cohesive journeys. In a Talkdesk Research™ report, we indicated negative patient outcomes caused by fragmented care such as heightened healthcare expenditures, increased likelihood for departures from clinical best practices, and higher rates of preventable hospitalizations. On the positive side, patients are empowered to proactively manage their own care when they have positive experiences with their health system. They develop positive emotional relationships with their healthcare providers, and are more likely to adhere to their care plans through trust their physicians have built with them.