HLTH was packed with amazing sessions, panelists, technology, and information.

But no need to feel overwhelmed! We listened in on most of the sessions at HLTH and boiled it down to the five biggest themes that were touched on this year.

1. Modernizing Legacy Systems 

If you compare the technology in healthcare to others, there’s no question that healthcare is far behind. Since healthcare is predominately analog, it’s one of the hardest industries to incorporate data science and Ai technology. But why is this the case? What are the biggest blockers to modernizing and digitizing the healthcare workflow?

According to the panelists at HLTH: The fear of change and decision by committee.

Innovation can be scary because it involves risk. But if there’s no change, then everyone loses. And risks come with rewards if all the stakeholders are willing to put in the time and effort it takes to really think differently about healthcare and how technology can push the boundaries on positive operational impact and clinical outcomes.

Beyond that, some believe that there are too many cooks in the kitchen. When it comes to technology, the process to approve a new solution or tech partner can include too many decision-makers in the process. And to quote a panelist, “if there’s nine yes’s and 1 no, it’s a tie.” In other words, new technology needs to pass everyone’s desk to be considered for implementation, which slows down the process and can keep stakeholders at the status quo making them fall behind competitors willing to innovate.

2. The Need for More Data Sharing 

Everyone wants everything to be in one place, but the biggest piece to achieving this is effective data sharing among all stakeholders.

There’s no doubt that this is an area that healthcare needs improve on, but why does it take so long to share data? One panelist's answer was that it takes time to build infrastructure around all different types of healthcare data.

But none of that is easy. It takes work to harmonize structured with unstructured data, claims with clinical data, SDoH, and all the above. Health plans need to start considering new technologies that can bring this all together and stay with it long enough to give it a real shot at succeeding. As a panelist put it, too many payers back out of the technology they invested in if it doesn’t yield immediate ROI, but health plans need to be in it for the long haul. Stakeholders need a longer-term commitment to a partnership to achieve true interoperability.

And real interoperability with healthcare data is more than just having information go from one point to another. Interoperability is about how that data is being shared and employed in the clinical workflow to where it's impacting outcomes and being considered in the patient journey.

How data gets shared and used is the most important piece in achieving more positive outcomes and healthier populations.

3. Achieving Health Equity 

Some say that the COVID pandemic didn’t create problems in healthcare, it just aggravated the problems that were already there – and health equity was one of those problems.

COVID exposed the lack of innovation in the healthcare system through the glaring inequities among high-risk and/or low-income populations. And while that disconnect between those communities and the healthcare system seemed to worsen, COVID also allowed the issue to come to the forefront, becoming a big theme at this year’s HLTH conference.

Panelists stressed the need to connect more with the patient journey beyond the walls of the hospital, to realize that people who are low income can't usually afford to chase down their records and might have issues making appointments and picking up medications.

But beyond patients, health plans also need to connect more internally with other departments and with external stakeholders. Based on the panels this year, health equity is a shared goal among health plans, employers, technology companies, providers, and everyone else. Health plans will find that their commitment to health equity is a lot easier when all stakeholders have access to real-time insights from updated data.

4. More Efficient Communication with Members

Bridging the divide between healthcare entities and the community starts with communication. Communication builds trust, mutual respect, and better care, in this case.

It was touched on more than once during HLTH that healthcare is out of touch with their members’ day-to-day reality and needs to “meet patients where they are.” Whether that’s turning to social media, community outreach, or knocking on their door, there are more ways to communicate than ever. And it’s not just about what healthcare is saying to patients, but it’s about what the patients what to say to healthcare.

Panelists talked through the need to listen more and ask what consumers want, especially those high risk. We need to start speaking their language and talking to them in the way they want to hear information, not in the way we want to say it. The industry needs to be a bigger part of patients’ everyday conversations to build trust – which is what it all comes down to.

5. There Needs to be More Trust

Trust is a hard thing to come by these days. People don’t trust their government, pharmaceutical companies, employers, businesses, you name it. But that’s why it’s more important than ever to start to measure your community’s trust in you. And trust is measurable. The number of no-show appointments, picking up medications, and other forms of engagement by the patient are all good places to start to see if you’re making an impact on trust.

It all starts with everything that’s been addressed so far. By improving data sharing, leveling out health equity, having more communication, health plans can build up more trust. And the more your population trusts you, the better you’ll be able to care for them and improve health outcomes.

HLTH’s biggest message to the industry: We can't afford to take a step back – and staying in place is the same as taking a step back. 

The industry needs to start to “build muscle around change” when it comes to new technology and stop being afraid of failure. And according to most experts, you're already failing if you're not changing.

2022 is around the corner and there’s never been a better time to start thinking differently about how you can radically improve your business, your relationships with stakeholders, and the health of your population.