Welcome to the latest edition of Re-Humanizing HealthTech, where we amplify and connect voices bringing humans back into healthcare.

This issue comes to you from Los Gatos, California, a beautiful area surrounded by parks and mountain ranges. I was delighted to discover that both public and private organizations have contributed to creating and preserving access to this natural space for now and future visitors.

Being an effective patient advocate is unreasonable for any individual. Taking a break from finger-pointing, I’m wondering how we might apply human-centered design principles, empathy for all stakeholders, and a holistic understanding of the system to remove the need for patient advocacy, entirely. What if we had perfect knowledge and perfect communication? What do we need to get there?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the blockers: Knowledge, time, and self-assurance.

Knowledge. Most people aren’t clinically trained. It follows that most people aren’t experts in identifying and communicating a symptom and the unique challenges it presents for them to their provider. As one example, a patient needs to establish a baseline, and what is normal when you’ve been living with pain for years? Another question is what is relevant—is the headache, the stomach cramps, the dry mouth normal? On top of that, a patient needs to gain an understanding of the provider network by condition and investigate financial implications.

Time. Let’s say we have a knowledgeable clinician as a patient. The next challenge is availability. Whether it’s fitting things in around family or work responsibilities, or simply physically getting to the clinic, getting care tends to fall to the bottom of the list. Then, our patient has to complete the full series of appointments and treatments, likely at multiple locations. Being persistent is tough when you’re operating at full health, but it’s nigh impossible when you’re ill and juggling.

Self-assurance. Let’s return to our knowledgeable clinician who now has ample time, and is also a very persistent patient. We already run into a caveat, since even when trained, being objective about what’s happening in your own body is a tall order. In addition, our patient must bypass self-doubt and avoid self-silencing, and confidently communicate to each provider.

Providers. What’s curious is that these challenges apply not only to patients, but to providers. Providers often lack knowledge in certain areas or exposure to the most recent guidelines or treatments. They’re squeezed from a time perspective, and are spending less time with patients and more time on paperwork. Confidence is low given conflicting requirements and misaligned incentives across system stakeholders, as well as fragmented systems and fear of litigation.

One of featured speakers at this weekend’s event framed patient advocacy not as a patient or provider problem, but as a system design flaw.

There’s much we can do, together. Read more below.

In optimism,

Katie

Women’s Health Advocates is uniting people to educate government decision-makers on women’s health gaps and policies and funding needed to advance the health of women. The coalition consists of people in all 50 states covering all sectors of women’s health as patients, physicians, investors, entrepreneurs, executives in business and non-profits, and public health and policy experts.

The Bay Area reception.

Over the weekend, the Bay Area team hosted an inspiring group in a beautiful location; cultivating new friendships, sharing healthcare knowledge, ideas, and hope, and raising more than a dash of cash for lobbying efforts.

Some conversations are highlighted below.

The need for patient advocacy is the result of a system design flaw.

This seems simple. Patients speak up, and providers hear. Unfortunately, there are a thousand reasons standing in the way of that idealistic communication in this intermediated system, and while education for patients and providers can help, no single role can fix the whole. Sylvie put this perfectly: It’s a system design flaw.

There’s a pathway to greater personalization in care.

The amount of healthcare data being generated is rapidly increasing. Think about how our ability to plan around the weather, and even plan around traffic has jump-stepped given the billions++ of observations in each of these areas.

Personalization and better care (as well as much-needed help for providers) is coming into focus as we collect more data and have a greater ability to analyze and interpret it with the help of AI. Challenges remain on the privacy front (see Flo Health) as well as interoperability and provider liability, and we must continue the conversation to uphold the highest standards.

Kathleen Jordan, CMO at Midi Health shared her excitement about the ability to better understand and better treat women as more insights surface.

Does “women’s health” need a rebrand?

Certain subjects remain taboo. In spite of the early success of women’s digital health companies, “scary topics” like periods, breast milk, or anything happening to a woman >40 struggle to find a foothold. Some of these subject areas are finding their way into the overall health narrative, and yet there’s plenty still to be done to normalize women’s bodies.

At the same time, there’s a clear desire to broaden the definition. Discussion circled not only around these areas, but also the disproportionate rate of heart disease and adverse drug reactions in women. Our investors, Tracy Dooley at Avestria, and Anula Jayasuriya at Kidron Capital, shared their focus on investing in Alzheimer’s and a recent investment in a cardiovascular health company.

Which leads back to another common critique, “Hey, what about the other 50% of the population?”. I don’t believe in silver bullets, but I do know that we need villages to get to the healthcare outcomes we deserve.

Yes, there is hope for policy.

Liz reminded us that constituents across the political aisle believe in safe, effective vaccines, and that she continues to have constructive and educational conversations with representatives on the Hill.

Raising our voices matters and makes a difference.

Check out the WHA website to learn more.

Expanding the scope of what’s considered “women’s health”. Facts and links from Women’s Health Advocates here.

A mosaic of public and private entities manage the Sierra Azul range. Is there inspiration for healthcare use cases? Repeated themes like lack of connectivity, filling in gaps, and taking a long-term view suggest so. A starting point here.

Also discussing public-private partnerships: Shyam Bishen, Head of Healthcare at the World Economic Forum was on stage at the WHX Conference sharing case studies to show what’s possible with this collaboration.

I help Seed & Series A healthtech startups design and build human-centric, investor-grade revenue engines.