Interview in Action @ HIMSS '23 - Grace Vinton, Patient Advocate, Digital Health Expert, and Healthcare PR Professional
Episode 65 β€’ 15th May 2023 β€’ This Week Health: Conference β€’ This Week Health
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interview in action from the:

Special thanks to our cDW, Rubrik, Sectra and Trellix for choosing to invest in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders.

You can check them out on our website this week, health.com, now onto this interview.

right, here we are from HIMSS:

And we are here with Grace.

Doing great. And we joined the show.

And you're with, you always have a different badge. Who are you with?

I am with Amidola Communications. And I'm also representing Hit Like a Girl podcast and community here.

Wow. Fantastic. So you guys have Uh, meetup

this morning. This morning we had a meetup of around a hundred to 150 women leaders in the industry all coming together to connect, drink coffee or tea as my podcast on it, like a girl's high two degrees.

And we had wonderful time just experiencing life together and really growing with one another. That happens all the time. That's

it. That's what you love about the uh, interviews and action. Yeah, so you've been doing the podcast for a while now, but I'm, , really curious that the we're going to talk about a lot of different things.

We only have ten minutes, but we'll talk about a bunch of different things. the community that's, formed around women in, in health care. Talk a little bit about that, because I think the community would benefit from understanding that.

Absolutely, so the Hit Like a Girl podcast started as a podcast.

It was just a way for... for women to learn from other women leaders in this space. And it has grown into being a huge community of folks that go on hikes together, go on private retreats together meet at huge events like this, and others in the industry. And it's really a great way for women in the industry to level up and learn from one another and to find mentorship in this space as well.

Another thing that Healing a Girl podcast has is a social media network. The Mighty Networks social media network. And that's a place where women can learn from one another, share educational resources, and other opportunities with one another to just really, like I said, level up and create friendships in this space.

And I'm gonna ask a, it's gonna sound like a hard question, but I believe there's practical applications to it. How do men versus women...

Oh, men do participate, actually. They join the social media network, they come to the events. And, if anything, men as allies, it's really important to helping women in this space really grow in their careers and expand in the roles that they have because we need men to support the work that we're doing and to support the efforts happening in women's health and other things.

So they come and they say, go girls, we got you, and we're going to support you the best we can.

What's top of mind? What are you looking at?

So at this conference, I'm actually tracking patients, caregivers, and other patient advocates and care partners on campus. So to me, it's really important that patients have a voice in the innovation process and in conversations happening about innovations that pertain to things like that matter to them and could potentially save their lives.

And so, it's been awesome to hear them on panels, sharing their experiences in an expert level way.

When we went to build our patient portal at St. Joseph we were developing, developing, developing, and finally someone came in and said hey let's do some focus groups. And we did focus groups, and they listed the, the patients listed the 10 things they wanted, and it was almost the exact opposite 10 things.

like, just flipped it It's like we have to get the medical record right, and, and patients came in and said, you have to get scheduling right, and we're like, wow, this is, it's a, it's a different perspecive

The patient perspective is one that comes from pain, honestly, and heartbreak with the way that healthcare is run and the experiences that are being had.

That said, many patients see a promise that innovation can help. They see the promise that innovation can make an impact. They can share how innovation impacts them on a, on a daily, on their daily life, and share insights that can really be valuable to companies and the health systems and their planning

You know, I was also, I was on a panel, Indy's choker was moderating, and if you've never been on a panel with Indy's choker, he engages the, the, entire audience. Yes, he's fantastic. And it was interesting because we were talking about interoperability and there was a woman in the back and she goes this is what you have to do She goes my child has I forget what they were struggling with but it's a lifelong illness and going to different doctors all over the country she's like, I now carry two binders about this thick Everywhere I go, it's like, you've got to solve that problem, and that's the voice we want at the table.

Absolutely. In:

I did have a backpack of records like hers, but it was not helpful, and at the end, it turned out I had

a very easily discoverable and treatable problem and it's just looking back on that experience, I've learned so much about the healthcare system, about how healthcare works and what's not going so great. And to me, it's really important that patients don't bear the brunt of healthcare record fragmentation and that we have a say in things that are happening even on the policy level in regards to healthcare data and other things

Are some of your clients and some of the people who listen to my podcast, are they engaging the patient better?

Yes. Absolutely, well they have patient boards, they have patient advocates that are coming on staff as chief patient officers. And it's, really happening on the leadership level. Not to mention the patient stories that are being shared of experiences of patients having, a wonderful experience.

Experience are not so wonderful experience with technology space that really shines light on what's happening.

πŸ“ β€Šβ€Šβ€Š πŸ“ We'll get back to our show in just a minute. I am excited about our webinars this year. They have been going very well. What I've done is I've gone out and talked to people in the community and said, what works in webinars?

And they came back and said, look, this is what we want. We want a webinar that is not product centric. It's really focused in on the problems of health care. And we want people on there that are actually solving those problems. And so we have done that. And the response has been fantastic this year. We have another webinar coming up.

It is the future of care spaces. Where care is being delivered is changing rapidly. Even the care spaces within the hospital themselves are changing. Technology is being added in different types of technology. A. I obviously computer vision and whatnot is changing that modality as well as what's going on in the home and whatnot.

So we're gonna have that webinar June 8th at one p. m. Easter time. We usually have it on the first Thursday. Happens to be a little too close to my anniversary. So we're going to do June 8th at 1 p. m. Eastern time future of care spaces. We would love to have you be a part of it. If you are interested in being there, go ahead and hit our website.

Top right hand corner. We have a card. You can click on that card and go ahead and fill out the form and get registered today. We would love to have you join us we look forward to seeing you there. Now back to our show.

πŸ“ β€Š πŸ“

So, that's fantastic that we're engaging the patient. What do you, I mean, your organization has a lot of clients in this area. What's the industry, what's the feeling in the industry right now?

I think the economy is a huge challenge, obviously. Everyone's trying to figure out their business models. Health systems are coming back lot of these vendors and saying, you need to prove your ROI in a year. We're not giving you three years anymore, it's a year, etc. So, and funding too, the funding landscape is tricky right now.

It's the, the funding landscape is softening. So, we're definitely seeing that folks are trying to navigate what that looks like. Changing their business models, reaching into pharma. Maybe in the past they may not have talked to pharma. They're finding new business models where the pharma money can come in and help really save their health.

Pharma, payer yeah. Direct to consumer though is still so difficult.

Absolutely. It doesn't seem like that's going to be happening anytime soon, especially in this economic environment.

Yeah, it's really, we had CIO panel and I said, what's your number one priority this year? And it essentially was, it's, it's financial we're all the, all the health systems are struggling and that has

a CIO that I've talked to has said, our focus for this year is our clinician and our nurse well being.

It's their wellness. If you can reduce burnout for us, we will probably work with you. And if you can prove it, we will work with you. Now even better and we need the clinical validation. People are saying more than ever before we work with you, any need clinical validations and know that it works.

What, what kind of services do you, I mean, do you bring that to your clients and help them to, to make those connections?

So my job is to be a healthcare storyteller. So once they've done it, I will share it with the universe and let the world know about it. And I think. Definitely different pieces that everyone plays in the puzzle, the day, share it.

Do you ever, I will be honest, sometimes I listen to some of these stories and I go, That's not gonna work.

Do you ever get a story and you look at it and go, This, this is not done.

Absolutely. And that, I will look at something and say, Oh, but can you do that with COPD? And they'll say, Oh, actually we could, that will take us two minutes. And then all of a sudden that is an editorially interesting story that we can share with the world.

So there are some times that happen.

So, what do you do to help, like, as you're talking to organizations who are trying to get their message out, what do you tell them about this story? What are the important

points

that they need to bring?

Well, we data. The world wants data. All the data. They need

the internal sale, for the internal sale is so important.

Because, at some point, your salesperson is talking to them. But then, that person has to go and sell it internally. And if you give them the kind of validation that they need, it makes their job so much easier. But if you don't, it's like...

And honestly, no one tells your story better than your customers. So, if you're a vendor and you're selling into health systems, then your health systems tell your story best.

If you're a health system trying to get more consumers into your health system, your consumers tell your story best. And so, for me, that's really important that people understand that, really, telling your message end of the day. You're not the hero. Your customer is the hero.

How important is the name? I'm just curious. Sometimes I look at some of the name is really important. It's important

that it's memorable. It's not hard to pronounce. It's part of the brand. It is part of the brand. The whole thing is a cohesive unit. And it all works together in tandem.

It's funny, when I started, people know this week health, but the parent company is called

Healthcare.

And

it's about, essentially it's about writing the story of healthcare. When I started it was about writing the story of healthcare, now it's about telling the story. It's just cheerful.

Oh, truly, truly. No, this one, Kelp, is a great name, by the way. And there are some great names on the floor to answer for sure.

There's lots of vendors here. Lots of energy. Lots of excitement. Lots of connection speeds. This morning at the Hit Like a Girl networking event, I mean, it's pretty amazing to see a huge group of folks from the industry really coming out and really getting excited to work together.

Grace, thank you for your time.

Another great interview. I wanna thank everybody who spent time with us at the conference. I love hearing from people on the front lines and it's phenomenal that they've taken the time to share their wisdom and experience with the community. It is greatly appreciated.

We wanna thank our partners, CDW, Rubrik, Sectra and Trellix, who invest in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.

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