SXSW 2019 — Providing for Providers and the Future of Healthcare UX

It’s official — I’ll be hosting a SXSW meetup in March 2019: Providing for Providers — Future of Healthcare UX. I’m excited to host, and invite you to collaborate with myself and others who are inventing this future.

In short, we need to do more for our healthcare providers to reduce burnout. If we can ensure healthier lifestyles for our providers, they’ll be better prepared to care for themselves and others.

Burnout statistics are commonly found, and disheartening.

• According to the AMA, 40–50% of physicians are currently burnt out.
• Burnt out physicians are likely to provide lower-quality care and are at higher risk for suicide.
• Burnout has similar implications for nurses and ancillary staff.
• It’s also bad for veterinarians, with rates of mental health issues at 2–3x the general population.
• Taking an even broader lense, caregiving is tough on physical and mental health, with upwards of 35% of informal caregivers indicating poor or fair health.

I can empathize. In 2007, when I was considering medical school, there were no shortage of comments from current physicians warning about the long slog and increasingly challenging lifestyles. Now that I’m at the age of 33, my peers who took the plunge then are now a few years into their practices and can confirm that those fears were warranted. More recently, our team at Thinktiv participated in qualitative research to identify the core needs and pain points of clinicians and ancillary staff.

We found seven core needs that need to be addressed to bolster providers and diminish the chance for burnout.

• Providers need the freedom to practice medicine as they wish (within ethical reason), in the environments and with the patient populations of their choosing.
• Providers need the time to provide that care, in the sense that they know they have delivered the best quality care they can.
• Providers need to work with high functioning teams. When together, high functioning teams provide greater outcomes than what could be achieved individually.
• Providers need less clerical work.
• Providers need recognition for their work.
• Providers need to have impact, both in the subjective and objective sense, such that they can feel good as well as identify growth opportunities to master their craft.
• Providers need an equitable return for their services granted their debts paid.

Current statistics aside, I’m very hopeful for improvements given advances in technology, the evolution of care models, and the companies I see working to close gaps related to these needs.

For instance, in my current role at Thinktiv, I am working directly with a client which plans to redesign the experience of searching for and matching to jobs. If launched appropriately, this application could be transformative in its ability to drive freedom of work for providers — truly, the “Uber of Healthcare”. While much larger changes are required in the credentialing system in the US, I am still optimistic that the application of design and engineering talent will at least decrease time and effort associated with managing credentials and thus time to placement in desired jobs.

There are a myriad of technological and societal trends that I believe will positively impact providers, including:

• Telehealth, and telehealth companies, that will enable providers to augment their reach as well as income potential.
• Connected health and fitness devices, that will provide better, more real time data into systems not only for decision and care support, but data about outcomes that can further fuel value-based care models.
• Cultural recognition of and investment in mental health, which broadly means companies and services that can address the general population can also be leveraged by providers when in need.
• Development of care models that input coaches and advocates into the mix, who can better coordinate care, offload clerical or routine tasks, and develop shared understanding between patients and providers.
• Technology enabled appreciation, which can serve as a means for individual recognition and an informal credential that builds trust among care teams.
• Growing applied design thinking expertise, which can drive empathic solutions to current problems in provider experiences across products, services, and systems.

I do recognize that these could, in some ways, be classified as longer term or even passive mechanisms. Clearly, we need strategies, people, products, and technologies combined in such ways that proactively identify and support providers at risk, as well as the leadership to sustain them. In whatever we do, we must bake in the recognition that most providers are inclined to care by their very nature — and design solutions that address concerns that arise if we ask them to care for themselves first. I know many individuals and organizations are already hard at work on this issue.

Over the next few months, I will gather stories from the front lines of providers, health service organizations, and technology start-ups to hear and amplify a clinician-centric point of view on how we can work together to provide for providers. I look forward to (briefly) sharing what I’ve learned with you at SXSW, and facilitating connections that will help us move forward towards a more ideal future.