Enhancing Patient Engagement

We often treat health literacy as a patient responsibility. But the data tells a different story. Nearly 9 out of 10 adults in the U.S. struggle with health information at some point—not because they lack intelligence, but because healthcare is complex, emotionally charged, and often delivered at the worst possible moment. Many health systems are working hard on this—teach-back, plain language, patient education teams. Yet gaps persist. Why? Here’s a simple use case: Asthma discharge. A parent is told: • Two inhalers • Different dosing schedules • Spacer technique • Warning signs • Follow-up timing • Insurance questions This often happens after an overnight stay. Minimal sleep. High anxiety. A child who just stabilized. We can do everything “right” on paper and still miss how humans process information under stress. If that parent cannot confidently explain the plan 24 hours later, it may not be about effort or intelligence. It may signal that the system needs reinforcement: • Additional language support • Visual instruction • Short-form video • Follow-up outreach • Redundancy by design—not because patients are forgetful, but because humans under stress are Health literacy is not an individual trait. It is a shared accountability. When communication is not embedded into workflow, technology decisions, staffing models, and measurement, even well-intentioned efforts can break down. The organizations that will lead in the next decade will treat communication as operational infrastructure. Not an add-on. Not a brochure. A strategy. If improving outcomes is on your priority list this year, here’s a practical place to look: Where are you still relying on dense text when a simple visual would work better? Where are you describing a technique instead of showing it? Where are you assuming recall instead of reinforcing with story? Sometimes the most meaningful intervention isn’t another document. It’s a clearer way to demonstrate the plan. When families can see and understand it, they’re far more likely to follow it. ♻️ If this resonates, share it with your network. 👉 And follow me for more ideas like this.

What exactly can healthcare leaders learn from patients? I had a heart transplant a few years ago. Being a patient-doctor has given me some perspective I didn’t have before, and I think we can sometimes benefit from hearing more directly from people who’ve had to "live" inside the system. Here are a few things I’ve learned that might be useful: - Clear, simple care helps everyone. Even when patients understand the medical language, fatigue, brain fog, & multiple inputs can make it hard to keep track. What looks like “non-adherence” perhaps sometimes stems from having to manage too much at once. - Misalignment between teams is common. Patients often get different messages depending on who they talk to, even during the same hospital stay. In my opinion, improving internal communication can help affect outcomes & even patient behavior. - Waiting is a big part of the patient experience, and it can feel like being stuck in limbo. ⏰ I know clinicians aren’t trying to delay care. In fact, many of us are juggling a lot at once without enough hours in a day to finish everything. Still, even small gaps in communication can add stress. It’s worth understanding when and where these delays happen most. - Small interactions shape how patients feel about care. The basic things, like someone introducing themselves or explaining what’s happening in plain language, is so important in helping reduce anxiety. 💯 - Discharge planning usually doesn’t cover everything. 🚗 After hospitalization, there are still many loose ends (like medication access, symptom monitoring, emotional adjustment, etc). Patients who are stable enough to go home aren’t necessarily prepared for what comes next. A follow-up system that works well can make a big difference. - Patients + advocates should be involved in designing new systems. They often notice issues that may not be visible from within. Their input isn’t meant to challenge. Rather, it should add perspective. Not every idea will be actionable, but including these voices can hopefully lead to more thoughtful, well-rounded solutions. One quick aside: I’ve found that many healthcare workers who become patients end up shifting their own approach to care. That experience stays with them. But ideally, we don't all have to be patients to design better systems. We could just listen more to the ones who already are. 😊 #patientadvocacy #womeninmedicine #medtech #healthcareleaders

Did you know women are 50% more likely than men to report skipping health care appointments due to long wait times and 35% of women are more likely to skip or delay care over a 12-month period compared to men? Postponing health care visits or leaving conditions untreated can lead to higher costs at a personal, organizational, and societal level.   Important new research from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, led by my colleagues jen radin, Asif Dhar, Jay B., Wendy Gerhardt Dorfman, and Leslie Korenda, found three structural design flaws contributing to gender disparities:    💰Affordability. Women are 31% more likely to skip care due to costs, and surveyed women were almost twice as likely to say they aren’t financially prepared to pay an unforeseen medical bill.   ⏰ Access. Scheduling and long wait times can make it difficult to make or keep medical appointments.   🫤 Prior experiences. More than 40% of participants in a previous survey said they have skipped or avoided care because they didn’t like the way a provider or staff member treated them.   I believe that addressing these flaws, focusing on women’s health, and closing the gender gap could lead to higher quality health outcomes regardless of gender. Every industry stakeholder—employers, health plans, hospitals and health systems, and investors and innovators—has a strategic, meaningful role to play by increasing its focus on women’s health, removing barriers to care, and improving experiences with innovative products and services.    Find specific ways the health care industry can address gender disparities and improve health equity for all in the report: https://deloi.tt/3SOR3uF 

🎤 New Publication Alert 🎉 I used a nationally representative survey to examine how medical (dis)trust and experiences of discrimination affect shared decision-making across racial and ethnic groups. 💡 What did I find? Regardless of race and ethnicity, medical mistrust reduces the odds of shared decision-making, and high-quality care increases the likelihood of shared decision-making 🚨 But when teasing out the data in the adjusted predicted models, we see a clear pattern: Experience of discrimination and medical mistrust, particularly among Black and Hispanic women, significantly reduced the predicted probability of shared decision-making. This group saw the steepest decline in collaborative care. 🔦 Big takeaways: 1. While Black women demonstrate high levels of patient advocacy, they still encounter systemic obstacles that threaten the quality of their clinical interactions. 2. Hispanic women face the most dramatic declines in collaborative care when experiencing discrimination. 3. Systemic failures have deeply eroded trust among women, particularly those from marginalized communities. 4. I argue that achieving health equity requires the elimination of discriminatory practices and the fostering of woman-centered care to rebuild institutional trust. Take a read and share your thoughts. https://lnkd.in/gnA6Yc4a #healthequity #shareddecisionmaking #womenshealth

Quality Content > Quantity of Content What’s more important: posting frequently or posting with purpose? Flooding your feed with low-value content does more harm than good. It weakens your brand and leaves your audience disengaged. Instead, take a step back and follow this 5-Step Process: STEP 1 - Post with intent. > Every post should serve a purpose. > Focus on adding value instead of filling space. Example: A post that answers a common client question builds trust. STEP 2 - Prioritize conversation over visibility. > Create posts that encourage interaction. > Ask questions or offer insights that spark discussion. Example: Instead of an update, pose a challenge your audience faces and offer solutions. STEP 3 - Focus on consistency, not frequency. > Don’t feel pressured to post daily. > Consistent, thoughtful content builds trust over time. Example: Weekly posts that go deep on a subject can generate higher engagement than daily surface-level content. STEP 4 - Analyze what works. > Check which posts get the most engagement. > Use that data to guide future content. Example: If a post about solving a client problem resonated, create a series based on that. STEP 5 - Engage meaningfully with responses. > Reply to comments with intention. > Build relationships through thoughtful replies. Example: Turn a comment thread into a real conversation. 1 powerful post can lead to deeper connections than 10 superficial ones. Even if it means posting less often, you’ll make a bigger impact. Remember, the goal isn’t to post more— It's to start real conversations.

𝗦𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝘁. 𝗦𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱. 93% of women aged 25–34 say they’ve felt dismissed when seeking medical care. That’s not a glitch. It’s a pattern. For centuries, women’s symptoms have been minimized—labeled “hysteria,” “stress,” or “normal.” Today, many are still told: 🩺 “It’s just anxiety.” 🩺 “You’re too young for that.” 🩺 “Let’s try a prescription and see.” 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁? 🔹 40% had to visit multiple providers before getting a proper diagnosis. 🔹 1 in 2 were prescribed meds without full investigation. This isn’t just a healthcare issue. It’s a systemic bias rooted in outdated norms and under-researched conditions. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲: ✅ Fund more research into women-specific conditions. ✅ Train clinicians to recognize and counteract bias. ✅ Equip women to advocate for themselves—with data, community, and support. It’s time we stop telling women “it’s all in your head.” And start listening like their lives depend on it—because sometimes, they do. #WomensHealth #HealthcareBias #GenderEquity #ListenToWomen #HealthAdvocacy

Female physicians: 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘀𝘀𝘆. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲. 𝗕𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. It's interesting because this is the trap we put them in, but the stereotypes don’t just shape careers, I think they might shape clinical outcomes. Patients say things like: "I want to see you instead of a man because I can be more open with you." That’s not “bedside manner.” That’s better information flow and honest knowledge extraction. When a patient feels safer (and maybe less judged, more supported, more nurtured?), they disclose more: The symptom they've minimized, or the fear they're embarrassed to say out loud. Or what's *really* the reason they're not taking their meds. More truth → better decisions → better outcomes. (Shocker: medicine still runs on the history.) We touch on this a bit in my podcast interview with Shikha Jain, MD, FACP: I think this is why patients cared for by women physicians have slightly better outcomes on average in several settings. (I'll link to some papers in the comments) Because the system quietly profits from behaviors women are pressured to perform... and then we 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗮𝘆 them, 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 them, and volunteer them for invisible, 𝘂𝗻𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 work. Healthcare looooves listening. It just doesn’t like paying for it. 💣 <Full episode link in the comments>

➡ What are you focused on? Because if you’re focusing on this, you’re losing out. Vanity metrics Most people get caught up in follower counts and likes, missing out on the real value that quality interactions bring. Focusing on vanity metrics will make your LinkedIn presence superficial, leading to missed opportunities to build genuine relationships and achieve your professional goals. 💡The result is a large but unengaged network. Your posts will receive minimal genuine interaction, and your influence will diminish over time. This lack of meaningful connections will hinder your ability to drive business growth, establish thought leadership, and make a lasting impact in your industry. ➡ Here’s how you will shift your focus to meaningful engagement and achieve success: 1. Engage Thoughtfully: Take the time to leave insightful comments on posts from your connections. Thoughtful engagement will build stronger relationships and increase your visibility. 2. Personalize Interactions: When reaching out to new connections or responding to messages, personalize your communication. Show genuine interest in their work and offer value. 3. Share Valuable Content: Post content that addresses the pain points and interests of your audience. Focus on providing solutions, insights, and actionable tips that will benefit them. 4. Join Relevant Discussions: Participate in LinkedIn groups and industry discussions. Share your expertise and learn from others to build a reputation as a thought leader. 5. Foster Conversations: Ask questions in your posts to encourage dialogue. Respond to comments and engage with your audience to keep the conversation going. 6. Track Engagement Metrics: Monitor metrics like comments, shares, and meaningful interactions rather than just likes and follower counts. These metrics will provide better insights into the effectiveness of your engagement strategy. ➡ Ready to transform your LinkedIn engagement strategy and achieve meaningful interactions? Follow me for more insights and schedule a consultation to start improving your engagement today. With the right strategy, your influence will expand, and your business will thrive. 🔽 🔽 🔽 👋 Hi, I'm Graham. Thanks for checking out my Post.   Here is what you can do next 🔽   ➕ Follow me to see me in your feed   🔔 Hit the bell on my profile for Post notifications   💬 Share your ideas or insights in the comments   ♻ Inform others in your network via a Share or Repost #fintech #finance #business #technology #innovation #socialmedia #sales

Text-heavy health information often falls flat, and that's no surprise. Research from journals like JMIR and Patient Education and Counseling suggests that well-crafted, engaging content—especially when it’s visual—can make a world of difference. By using concise storytelling and clear illustrations or animations, patients tend to grasp complex topics more quickly and feel more empowered to act. Why it works: • Simplicity & Story: Animated or visually rich explainers break down medical jargon, boosting understanding and recall. • Behavioral Frameworks: Tapping into models like the Health Belief Model(HBM) or the Transtheoretical Model ensures the content addresses specific challenges and motivations. • Relatable Scenarios: Illustrating real-life situations helps viewers see themselves in the story, making them more likely to adopt the recommendations. Bottom line: Switching from “just read” to “truly engage” shifts patients from passive observers to proactive participants in their own health journey. By prioritizing clear, visually engaging elements, we give patients the best shot at making informed decisions—and sticking to healthier habits.

Care delivery companies: don’t repeat my mistake! Don’t design for more efficiency when what you need is more humanity. A few months into building Iron Health, we had a problem: patients weren't attending follow-up appointments at the rate we expected. So we did what any rational product team would do - we built solutions. More personalized appointment reminders, SMS instead of email, simpler rescheduling flows. And it only kind of worked. We saw a small bump in appointment attendance, but not enough to move the business. So we went back to the data. We read every word of feedback, tracked every single patient journey, asked every provider what they were seeing. Here's what we learned: the patients who came back weren't the ones who received the most outreach. They were the ones who had a strong relationship with their provider. Not a good experience with the platform, a genuine connection with a person. They showed up for appointments because they didn't want to let someone down. Because they looked forward to time with someone who cared about them. Because that relationship carried weight, emotional and human weight, that no appointment reminder could replicate. So we changed our strategy. We stopped investing primarily in workflow optimization and started investing in relationship acceleration. We designed ways for patients and providers to connect before the first appointment. We created touchpoints between visits that built trust and continuity. We gave providers tools to be more present, more human, more themselves, at scale. Turns out, helping providers scale their humanity is good business strategy. When you do that, adherence goes up, retention improves, patients stay in care longer and show up more consistently. Not because you reduced friction but because you deepened connection. If your patients aren't engaging, take a step back from workflows and examine how your technology supports relationships. As sexy as your platform might be, it’s meaningful connections with providers that keep patients coming back. Design accordingly.