Incorporating diversity into channels and platforms like Emmi, Wolters Kluwer Health’s personalized patient-facing education tool is leveraged by providers, payers and partners to empower and encourage encourages patients to be involved in their healthcare decision-making, says Evan Heigert, chief brand and innovation officer overseeing patient engagement on Wolters Kluwer Health.
While diversity always creates a richer story,” says Heigert, he focuses his user experience and creative teams on building trust with minority communities by ensuring that they can identify the health communications they receive or access.
When it comes to something like healthcare, “it’s very important to build trust and develop representation on behalf of our patients so they feel seen and heard.” He said, noting that they may have been distrustful or underrepresented in the healthcare sector.
Promoting diversity is not just an overnight check box on diversity, equity and health inclusion. Educational materials – whether printed or multimedia – should be created with a deliberate effort on the part of DEI to strengthen the provider-patient relationship.
Restore maternal health education
To address cultural misconceptions or mistrust in different medical settings, such as maternal health, Heigert’s team recently updated Wolters Kluwer Health’s childbirth program, a of the most used patient education programs.
They modernized the look and presentation of the figures, but one important change was the voiceover used for the copy. It’s very clinical in explaining what will happen during the procedure, Heigert explains.
“We reversed that to see it from a slightly more patient perspective and encourage and empower language,” he said.
“Whatever their background and health history, they always deserve respectful and personalized care and so just encourage that language so they feel in control and can address and ask questions, where in the past they might have actually experienced poorly in the healthcare space.”
When they measured the uptake of the resuscitative maternal health program, the patients reported positive patient feedback from the survey at the end of the program. They said they felt like they were more represented and the language more accessible, he said.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve put a strong focus on creating new programs with more personalization and a greater focus on diversity, equity and inclusion” and have seen rates begin for those shows in that time frame up 30% over older shows, he said.
On the provider side, outreach videos and outreach calls often lead to measurable outcomes, a Wolters Kluwer Health representative said in a follow-up email.
After using EmmiJourneys, a personalized version of Emmi’s post-clinical support with multi-channel content, Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi found:
- 50% more likely to have follow-up appointments with primary care providers within 21 days of discharge.
- A 26% reduction in avoidable emergency department visits.
- Fewer ED visits are associated with lower costs, which can be as high as $89,000 for every 1,000 patients discharged.
- 30-day remission rates are lower from 27% to 65%, depending on whether patients are enrolled in only some or all of the Emmi programs prescribed to them.
A look back at the programs from five to 10 years ago shows that “they certainly didn’t address much of the experience that needed to be addressed,” he said.
Wolters Kluwer Health’s creative team now reviews their content library, highly used patient education programs, and information programs specifically targeting minority communities every year. Members seek opportunities to examine visuals and language (tone and voice artists) and recreate those shows or alter certain properties of them to make them more inclusive.
“It’s something you have to learn and develop and evolve over time, and we’ve certainly seen that in the work we’ve done,” says Heigert.
While Wolters Kluwer Health’s internal editorial team worked with patient advisory boards to gather feedback on patient-facing education programs, as well as with providers and peer customers, delegates medical and third-party consultants, using key tactics can help any in-house creative team implement DEI in their patient-oriented materials.
Building trust through universal design
Reflecting diversity, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, family structure and ability levels also leads to greater medical accuracy with information provided to patients, Heigert explains. individual, Heigert explained.
One example is sharing information about what measles can look like by “showing lighter and darker skin tones so you can really see the exact look and feel of the disease.” based on different experiences,” he said.
Creative teams can also use the “show and say” approach in illustrated, text-on-screen, and audio formats.
An example of this is Emmi’s voice development – historically a white woman who conveyed information in a very empathetic way. “But that was limited in terms of the audience we were talking to,” he said.
Over time, they found that “it is true that patients would trust a voice from their community more than someone speaking to them from the outside.” They have increased their roster of professional voiceover artists to represent a broader and more diverse group of voices.
“With so much content out there, it is impossible to customize each piece of content to be patient-oriented, but patient-oriented materials can show “some perspective over time,” he said. speak.
Allow access for all possibilities and methods
As digital interaction becomes the norm, providers and others must provide access to patient information across multiple audiences.
“Digital interactions are increasing at breakneck speed. Back in the day, you used to go talk to your doctor and have a live chat, and if you don’t understand something, you can ask questions. .
He added: “That’s still what we’re trying to enable, better ask patients, but we understand that just having access to that digital information is crucial and is provided on a per-user basis. many different ways.
“Providing the widest range of approaches to content distribution and the tools that enable others to access that content is where equity comes into play,” he said.
Some simple techniques that all providers can implement in direct patient communication are compliance with Web accessibility standards, known as WCAG 2.0, closed captioning, which allows presentation Read text-to-audio scripts for all content and make sure content is available in multiple formats, including print.
Bridging the gap in health knowledge
Creating thoughtful patient-interactive content can also address the growing medical knowledge gap in the U.S.
Patients have a lot of information at their fingertips, and with it, misinformation.
Heigert said the U.S. Department of Education found that 80 million people have low levels of health literacy, and more than 65% of those come from minority communities.
“Our northern star, our guiding light, can provide evidence-based information in a way that brings power and engagement to those patients,” he said.
Your advice to providers and payers on how to address topics for their patients or members? “You have to find a balance between accuracy and evidence-based information, but also appealing and understandable to that patient,” he said.
Aim for language that is accessible and empathetic to their situation, and that ultimately helps them make decisions, he advises. Traffickers include using language that is as imprecise as possible – poop instead of manure, weed instead of marijuana – “understandable stuff”, as it is very important to be clear and precise with patient information, he said.
The media industry standard is aimed at fourth or fifth grade reading. “And that’s not to stupid information, it’s just to make it clear and simple for the patient to understand at all levels. But it’s also possible to be empathetic in the sense that you don’t know how to think. where are their thoughts at the time they are receiving this information,” he said.
He also recommends using visual metaphors to explain complex topics. A simple example is telling your partner what to expect before birth using the water balloon example. It can break apart and spew out water, or a little can float up at a time, like when a water balloon is only lightly punctured.
“Explaining that experience as well as showing visual metaphors helps a kind of patient understand that and personalize it no matter what their reality is,” he said.
The most advanced is patience
Heigert advises that when looking at cutting-edge technologies for patient communication, such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence, start with the patient’s needs and challenges, then look at options. technology for how to deliver content in an impactful way.
“The thing to keep in mind in any conversation around technology is that we approach it from a patient perspective, understanding their needs and abilities to access content and deliver it,” he said. in different ways for them to access.”
Wolters Kluwer Health uses a combination of audio and visual content, including text, voice calls, and web-based video with elective options for personalization to communicate with patients about health-related information. mandarin.
In addition to voice diversification, Wolters Kluwer also uses voice-enabled technologies to deliver content through apps like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, Heigert said.
“One of the trends we’ve seen in the industry in general is that AI voices have very white voices,” so the creative team is looking to bring their diverse voice talents to the ground. different to apply to AI-driven patients. Provide information.
In the future for interaction with patient information, “personalization and representation go hand in hand… We can see them where they are,” concludes Heigert.
Andrea Fox is the senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
