Outcomes Rocket_Alexis and Theresa: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Saul Marquez:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket and want to welcome you again. We’re covering a really important topic, the topic of techquity. That’s equity in healthcare with the technology that we use to reach the people that need it most. Today I have the privilege of hosting two fantastic guests. And first, I want to introduce you to Theresa. She, she’s been on the podcast before, but worth introducing once again. Theresa Demeter is an entrepreneurial executive administrator with 30 years of healthcare performance and operational experience. In her role as managing director at Tegria, she brings her passion for conceptualizing and implementing innovative solutions that drive quality and performance improvement to optimize patient outcomes. Theresa developed Tegria’s offering that helps healthcare organizations prioritize and operationalize their health equity strategy and mitigate the harmful effects of implicit bias through macro simulation. She is just an incredible person and contributor to the healthcare space, the techquity space, which is what we’re going to be talking about today. I also want to introduce you to our next guest. Her name is Alexis. Alexis Anderson is a principal at Ipsos Healthcare Advisory whose work focuses on the intersection between digital transformation, patient centricity, and most importantly, techquity. She is a management and strategy consultant who helps clients to better understand patients needs and harness insights to meaningfully transform product development and design better digital tools. With both of these incredible leaders, we’re going to have a fantastic conversation centered around the topic of techquity. What is it and what can we do about it in our health system as well as our solutions that we provide to the healthcare system. I want to welcome you both. Thanks for joining me.
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, thanks so much for having us.
Saul Marquez:
It’s a pleasure. And of course, Theresa, good to have you again. Always good to see you. And Alexis.
Theresa Demeter:
Good to be here again.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, and Alexis for the first time. All right. We love to just kind of dig into what is it that makes health leaders tick. So why don’t you share with us before we get into the techquity great stuff that we’re gonna cover. What inspires your work in healthcare?
Theresa Demeter:
What I think about is this is just such a diverse group of people coming together, and I think that the thread that pulls us together is really wanting to make sure that healthcare and technology works for everyone and that we are really dedicated and passionate about health equity and what that really means. And health equity means that everyone has what they need to thrive. And so part of our coalition, part of our work is that in this rush of technology, which has huge potential to improve healthcare and improve access, that we’re considering everyone’s needs, we’re not leaving anyone behind, and we’re really ensuring that the design and the implementation and the use of technology and data is really closing that gap on health equity. And we’re not doing anything to increase disparities or lack of access. So we’ve been working on really defining what that means as a coalition and we are using the term techquity to define that concept of making sure that technology is working for everyone. And so the way that we define techquity, which has been a word that’s come up a lot in conversation as we talk about technology and data, but techquity is really the intentional design and deployment of technology both to advance health equity, but also to avoid deepening the existing systemic inequalities that lead to healthcare disparities and disparate outcomes for different populations of people. And then it considers data practices as well. So it’s really very much a focus on ensuring technology, healthcare technology is working for everyone.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, thanks for that, Theresa, and Alexis will definitely want to hear from you as well. I love that it’s more than a word, folks. So when you think about techquity, it’s more than just a word. It’s a practice, it’s a method, it’s a way. So, Theresa, appreciate you sharing that and look forward to unpacking it more. Alexis, talk to us about you. What is it that makes you tick in healthcare?
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, love it, and I think this concept of techquity really is something that makes me so inspired, it makes me tick. It’s the core kind of passion, I would say, in my work right now. And just so grateful to be one of the strategic partners collaborating with HLTH Foundation, who’s convened this coalition together that Theresa was talking about. It’s such an exciting place to, to be focusing in, to be working in, because it’s a, it’s an area of huge need, right? We’re all going to be patients at some point, and more likely than not, by the time we are patients, if we’re not patients already, someone’s going to recommend a digital tool or technology to us. And I think it’s so core that that technology we know that it’s there to support us, we feel that it’s going to really add benefit to our lives by using it. And even more importantly, it works as it should. And I think it’s so important that statement is true regardless of your background, regardless of your ethnicity, regardless of your skin tone. And as a fact, right now, that’s not something we can say about health technology. It isn’t doing or isn’t accomplishing those goals. So I think that really kind of makes me tick, as you said, and inspires me to be part of this coalition with Theresa and a broader set of, of our team.
Saul Marquez:
Now, that’s great, Alexis. Thank you. And you’re right, there’s huge gaps in equity, in access. And so these, the work that you guys are embarking on and have done a lot already on is inspiring to me and I know to a lot of the listeners. So let’s talk about how this is emanating in the work that you’re doing. How is it adding value to the healthcare ecosystem?
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, for sure. I can take that, and then Theresa would love to hear your thoughts as well. And so I think background for the audience, just in case you’re new to this area of techquity, as Theresa mentioned, so it’s a really complex topic, it’s a broad topic. I’m breaking it down into a couple different pillars or aspects that I’ll just touch on briefly to provide some context. First area we want to touch on is overall trust in the healthcare system. And that means that trusts, as I was just talking about technologies there support them, they feel that it’s safe, they feel that their information will be private. Second, we’re looking at access, which is just thinking around this concept of can someone even get the piece of health technology in their hands like the app, or is it expensive? Do they not know about it? Those are all kind of access barriers. There’s more, of course too. Third area we focus on is making sure that someone can have that initial user uptake of a health tech. So let’s say they got access to the app, but it’s not in their language or they’ve got like a visual impairment and there’s no kind of sound capability for the app. They technically got it, but they can’t use it and that’s a huge problem. And then lastly, we’re focused on long-term sustained adoption of health tech, which means that the person got the app in their hands, for example, they’re able to work it, but if they need to update it 12 times a day, if they need 12 apps to monitor their condition like diabetes, one’s for sleep, one’s for diet, one’s for stress, that’s not going to work. They’re forcing their life to fit into the technology versus vice versa. So that’s another area that we’re focused on. So overall, we’re really inspired by this idea that we can’t afford to wait when it comes to addressing techquity. And that’s why this coalition that Theresa mentioned, that’s why this team we’re all acting now because as the healthcare industry and its reliance on tech and data goes up, the risks of inaction also go up. And we’ve got this huge risk of further entrenching these inequities, these health disparities that we know exist. And even worse, I think there’s this risk that new generations of people are going to suffer worse health outcomes or experience health disparities. And it’s only going to further that digital divide, which is a huge problem. So we’ve got to act now. It’s not a new term, it’s not a new concept, as Theresa mentioned, but we feel really strongly that we’ve got to focus on this now and really prioritize it. And so you asked around how our work is going to add value to the healthcare ecosystem, and it’s a really good question. I think couple of things come to mind for me on that one. First, we know there’s a lot of knowledge out there already about health equity, outcomes, and disparities around outcomes, I’ll say. But there’s no industry-wide consensus right now on standards on how we should integrate equity into the design of health tech and data practices. So really want to add value there, and that’s a focus for our coalition. I think Coalition is something I also want to talk about because that’s another way that we’re adding value. HLTH Foundation, as I mentioned, has convened or announced this Techquity for Health Coalition, which Theresa is part of, and Ipsos is a strategic member. Our goal, we’ve got three main goals that I want to share with the audience. First, we want to bring attention to this need for the consideration of health equity when it comes to tech design and the way we approach data practices. Second, we really want to gather this knowledge that already exists and use it. Number three, to help the industry develop and agree on what those standards are, what those best practices are. And lastly, I’d say we’re, our goal is to monitor how industry is progressing, because I think we’ve got a motto that we’ve said, which is you can’t move forward if you can’t measure it. And using those measurements helps drives us forward. Theresa, anything you’d add there?
Theresa Demeter:
You know, I think about as you were talking, Alexis, is the way that we’re thinking about health equity today often is an end. It’s like we’re going to do all of these things and health equity. I come from 30 years in healthcare, most of that in quality. So I’ve really helped or at least been part of embedding quality into healthcare. So it’s not an and anymore quality is just an expectation. And that’s where we’re moving to with techquity and health equity, is it shouldn’t be something that we consider an and it should just really be part of what we do. You can’t really separate quality and health equity. You really can’t have one without the other. And so part of what we’re working on together is to make health equity and the idea of techquity and all of this proliferation of technology, then health equity is just part of it. It’s not something that we have to think about separately. It’s just baked right in because techquity has the potential. This concept of equity has the potential to help so many people. If we think about, I think Alexis said earlier, all of us, our families, our friends have an experience in some point in their lives where they couldn’t access healthcare for whatever reason, and especially with technology, whether it’s your ability to get on the Internet, your ability to have health literacy and understand what you’re reading through the technology or I think something that we’ve been discussing a lot lately is data and the importance to ensure that implicit bias isn’t influencing the data that we’re collecting, and then how we’re looking at that data and how we’re using that data. So the goal, I think, of all of this is just to really embed health equity into technology so that it’s not an and.
Saul Marquez:
So, no, I really appreciate the insight here from you both and we need to make it better. Not making it an and is key, thinking about all those barriers that that Alexis mentioned is key. So let’s talk about how we could do it different and better. Alexis, can you maybe start us off and then Theresa would love to hear from you, too.
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ll focus here specifically on this coalition and I think why it’s maybe different or just some things that we’ve kept in mind and I know HLTH Foundation has kept in mind as they’ve been convening industry members from across industry and I’ll touch on that too. Right now we’ve got, I think 22 or 23 members from all across industry. So we’ve got members from Pharma, MedTech, biotech, clinical care organizations, those representing patient groups and communities. So we’ve really tried to be ultra comprehensive. And I’d say probably that’s the first thing that comes to mind, is we’ve tried to be really mindful of inclusion, connecting healthcare stakeholders from all different backgrounds, areas of experience, areas of the industry, because as we mentioned, techquity’s a complex problem. It’ll take an integrated holistic coalition to solve it. And if we just focus on one aspect of the healthcare system, we’re going to sort of get that bigger picture in the context in which healthcare happens. So I think that’s number one. Second thing, this piece we’ve started to touch on a bit and excited to talk about that a little bit more later on. But we’re really trying to be mindful of thoughtful measurement. And so I think it’s so popular right now to hear this phrase in industry saying we need to meet people where they’re at. But that’s really true for the industry, too. We’ve got all these lofty goals for industry to achieve all these different things. And so second thing I want to mention is we’ve got this industry benchmarking initiative again, which we’ll talk a little bit more later on hopefully. But the goal is to understand where is industry at now when it comes to thinking through equity and how it’s integrated into health tech? And our goal is to establish that baseline and then work from there to develop a roadmap and set of recommendations for industry to move forward. And hopefully that helps us do so in a way which we haven’t been able to do previously. Theresa, what do you think?
Theresa Demeter:
I think one of the things that, that we’re doing differently is our transparency and our, the reason that we exist is to share this information, which is different from healthcare. Healthcare has not been a transparent industry over the course of the 30 years that I’ve been around, and so I think this is really different. This is bringing a really diverse, very intentionally diverse group of people together to think through these issues of equity and health equity. But then the idea is to make sure that as many people have the information, the knowledge and the guidelines as possible, because the only way we’re really going to make a difference is if we do it together. So I think that’s really key to what we’re doing differently. And then secondly, keeping our focus, we have a really specific focus on the people that we’re trying to serve while we want to help ensure the best type of technology in healthcare for everybody, and that goes without saying. But our reason for coming together is to keep this focus on people who are part of marginalized communities or underserved communities that aren’t represented necessarily in the design of technology, in that framing of how people use technology. And so we have a real focus to make sure that those people are included, they’re considered, they’re not left behind. And so I think that makes this a little bit special.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, no, that’s fantastic. I think all of the things that, that both of you are talking about are vital to making this common practice in healthcare. And the way that solutions are designed and delivered outcomes is at the core of all of this discussion. So talk to us about how this model and way forward will improve outcomes or make business better.
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, great question. It can take that I suppose, first and then Theresa would also love to hear your thoughts. Outcomes, right now, I guess it’s important for the audience or if you’re still listening, it’s important for you to know that our coalition is fielding the first-ever national benchmark around techquity in healthcare. And so it’s going to be live until April 15th. and so if you haven’t taken that benchmark yet, I would really encourage you to, we want to hear from folks working across healthcare. And it doesn’t matter if you get a lot of experience or no experience at all, the purpose is a benchmark so that we can have that baseline, as I mentioned. And so what is the benchmark doing? A couple different things. We’re trying to think through that baseline measurements are an awareness, do people know what techquity is? Do they feel that it’s important? Do they think that it’s urgent? And it also covers some workforce-related issues around diversity, equity, inclusion. It essentially says, I think one of our key hypothesis is equity isn’t something that can be acted on externally, it needs to be embedded from within an organization to enable it to have an impact externally. And so we measure a couple of things like how equity is being integrated into leadership, processes, how equity is may be considered when thinking about designing technology. So it’s pretty comprehensive, but good news, it only takes eight minutes. So yeah, really excited. And our goal is to use those insights to develop some of the standards, develop some of the best practices around techquity so that we can establish that baseline and also use it as a way to measure progress moving forward. Just out of curiosity, anything you’d want to add there too?
Theresa Demeter:
I would just add, the idea here is to get people to start thinking about the importance of techquity and taking that survey has been really enlightening for people who haven’t given this some thought before. I was speaking to someone just the other day who said it never had occurred to me that technology wasn’t designed for everyone. And so taking a survey, learning a little bit about techquity, has been a great start to our work because unless you are a person that has had trouble accessing care or has had challenges in the healthcare system, this isn’t something that you think about every day. So the idea of really elevating this to a conversation amongst all of us has been really important and a great way to get started.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, you know, that’s great. Folks, take the survey, is, like Theresa mentioned, you’re going to learn something by taking the survey. So if this is something close to your heart and you care about, take the survey. And if you don’t care about this, first of all, shame on you, and you should take it because you’ve got to get with the times. If you don’t do this, it’s going to be a huge miss. I appreciate the opportunity that both, both Theresa and Alexis have presented to us to take the survey. So I will take it as well. What’s one of the biggest setbacks that you’ve experienced?
Alexis Anderson:
Yeah, I’ll say it’s been a bit of a learning experience all around, and I’ll say that getting the word out about the survey was a bit trickier than we potentially thought it was going to be. So we knew we were sending it to a pretty broad distribution list. Essentially almost everyone in the health network above a certain level, we’re looking for leaders in healthcare. So we did have some criteria that we were basing it around, and we thought if we sent it to a certain number of people, everyone was going to be so excited to take it. And we were just going to see an immediate response. I think we were a little optimistic. This is a busy time for people, there’s some hesitation, I think, as you were, we were saying, around people who maybe saw it and they’re interested to participate, but they maybe are afraid of what they don’t know. They’re not sure what they’re going to see in the survey, and so there’s like hesitation to say, I don’t know on some of the questions, I’m assuming something like that is maybe happening because like I said, we thought we were going to put this out there in like in a week. We were going to get all the numbers we needed and it did not go that way. So we, it’s been a little bit of we’ve been spending time on encouraging people on a one-on-one basis to take it out there, sharing it on social media, sending email reminders. But I’ll just reiterate again, it’s important for people who don’t have an awareness of techquity to take it because it’s intended to be a true baseline and we can’t do that if we’re only getting people who are already adopting it, already practicing it and already prioritizing it.
Theresa Demeter:
People who’ve never taken the time to think about techquity or even health equity may not feel as inspired to take the survey. And so I think it takes a little bit of conversation sometimes to help people understand why it’s important, why it matters, and that at some point everyone is going to be affected by the lack of techquity. And so it’s not just the people over there, it’s really all over.
Saul Marquez:
I’m a fan of the work that you guys are doing and your resilience to get this done. Look, folks, there’s an opportunity here. So my call to action to everybody listening is to check it out, and we’re going to give you a way to take the survey. You will, by taking it, and there’s an opportunity to contribute to this movement, which is so great. With those setbacks come learnings, right? And I feel like that’s what we really love to share here on the podcast. So talk to us about some of those learnings thus far.
Alexis Anderson:
Well, I’ll say there are a ton of learnings. We’ve been looking through some of the early data and it’s been really awesome to see that come through, but I don’t want to give it away too soon. You’re going to have to tune in for ViVe’s, March 26th or 27th, where I think 26, actually let me look at my calendar, so I don’t say this wrong. 27th, 27th again, we’re going to be doing a presentation at ViVe, and so really looking forward to that. Keep an eye out for us at ViVe. There’s going to be a techquity boost in the main pavilion so can answer anyone’s questions there. And then after the fact, you can always reach out to health, H L T H, at info@HLTHFoundation.org, there’s going to be some good insights. Don’t miss out and hopefully maybe even we can come back around, Saul, to show you those once they’re published.
Saul Marquez:
Id love that. Theresa, closing thoughts from you?
Alexis Anderson:
No, I just would echo what Alexis said. I think that learnings from the findings, both from our conversations and our surveys, are going to be really impactful and people are going to definitely want to kind of come back and hear what has been learned through the survey because it’s going to be meaningful for them and we’ll all want to take it forward.
Saul Marquez:
Fantastic. Theresa, Alexis, I want to thank you both for doing what you do and doing it so well, but also doing this very meaningful work that’s going to touch millions of Americans. Look, guys, the email is info@HLTHfoundation.org. That’s info at H L T H foundation.org. We’ll leave that in the show notes along with all the other amazing summaries and notes that we discussed today. So Alexis and Theresa, thank you again.
Alexis Anderson:
Thank you.
Theresa Demeter:
Thanks. This has been awesome. Can’t wait to be back. Thanks Saul!
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