The South by Southwest (SXSW) conference had its first in-person/hybrid event since the pandemic began. The Healthcare industry covered engaging and illuminating topics and panel discussions, everything from experimental Psychedelics to what "post-pandemic world." We wanted to focus on more detailed aspects that reflect trends relatable to us. Their series about "the healthcare road ahead" focused on the future of healthcare and what could come next. Here are the following topics that caught our attention while attending the globally recognized conference:
What the "She-cession" Will Teach Us About Hiring
An excellent discussion moderated by the CMO of Indeed. The Covid recession has impacted women, which has affected healthcare and recruiting. The fallout continues as the recovery accelerates as people leaving the workforce are women and women of color even more. The presentation during this panel presented some facts:
70% of women left a role because of a lack of support, flexible work, childcare, and healthcare support.
89% of women say their partner was not as impacted as they were.
Women want to be paid more, be happy, have a meaning of belonging, work environment flexibility, and sympathetic managers.
The panelists discuss what various organizations have done, including scheduling meetings at better times and being deliberate about keeping the parents navigating online learning—doing away with being on camera to monitor productivity. Related to healthcare, one panelist discussed the healthcare industry's challenges and how they overcame those issues. There is a tool one place used that serves job position recommendations to people based on their personality, which increased hiring women. A piece of advice was to ask questions about people being allowed to be their authentic selves at work since they spend so much time there.
Beyond the pandemic, the issue needs to be resolved to improve the retention of women as leaders, CEOs, corporate, non-profit boards, and this gap will be closed. The major takeaway was it is not up to women alone to fix these issues, but organizations as a collective should, too.
Hospital Data Transparency During Covid
This talk might have been the most fascinating of everything we attended. The pipeline between collecting data, parsing it, and releasing it to journalists was an intricate journey. They reflected on the pandemic's beginning. Remember the ventilator crisis? People needed to know how many hospitals did not have data on those and bed counts. States with natural disasters were more likely to have a system like this. They had to organize the detailed information in a daunting task once information was submitted to HHS.
Most governments at every level needed more organized hospital reporting and comprehensive data like staffing shortages, temporary beds, PPE supplies, etc. Allocating Remdesivir early in the pandemic would be based on people who recently got Covid and not people who had it for a while. Knowing real-time needs would increase or decrease shipping overall saved lives. The streamlined data elements automated it to change the response quickly and took a load off hospitals. Rural hospitals that only had a few cases could face privacy issues.
They discussed the challenge of releasing data too quickly without confirming but too late for it not to be valuable and out of date. The COVID Tracking Project dashboard featured 70 volunteers taking data at the county level to create a national database for public knowledge. With this information, journalists would be able to inform the public about spikes at the state and local level and combat misinformation.
The collection and releasing of information shouldn't end post-pandemic. It is vital to keep data active if there is another medical crisis, and it is better to be safe than sorry, as an ill-prepared system has reminded us. It benefits the public. With a system like this, people can track influenza data to be more prepared for flu seasons.
The next crisis this panel worries about is retaining burned-out staff from a discouraging situation. For burnout, medical professionals need to document their thoughts and know if the system will not collapse of transparency with good journalism can take on misinformation. Most of it moved from HHS to CDC and HealthData.gov. One encouraging form of accountability was reporters comparing different data sources to find discrepancies, which would build trust for transparency.
In conclusion, the panel suggested this brought several kinds of organizations together in health, policy, technology experts, emergency, and operations and provided needed information for the public. All in all, "demand your data" was a big takeaway.
Equity: Mindset for Patients and Racial Disparities
Patient equity is a complex and complicated topic in the healthcare industry. Building trust is the crucial first step for healthcare providers. One panel discussed making clinical trials more equitable to reflect accurately diverse communities. Being data-driven, they suggested making the information meaningful to all patients from effectiveness, adverse effects and needed access. Clinical trials initially consisted of only white men neglecting other people based on gender and race. Expanding the patient field helps healthcare workers provide culturally competent care and inherent biases in healthcare in treating diverse patients.
Another point made was how to make people healthy in a non-medical way. Therapy beyond medicine and treatment is relevant to patients—partner with community leaders to bring awareness. Social determinacies drive health, and taking on that will lead to equity, both quality of life and length of life. Meet people where they are so they can give the information they need—asking questions about their home, dietary issues, sleeping, or access to transportation, elevated blood sugar. Reach out and educate the Black community about barriers and challenges: food stress trauma and access to insurance. A recent example of this was connecting with institutions in the Black community to help discuss Covid vaccines.
Medical providers can think about solutions and how to make them sustainable for the community long term. Three key takeaways were bridging the gap for doctors, building trust with patients, and creating solutions catered to the patients. Make sure your team members reflect diversity for intersectionality since people trust others who look the most like them. Ask if the work you do builds bias. Removing colonizing mindset, addressing healthcare deserts with innovative capturing of data, and confronting medical misinformation all close the equity gap. Remember to prioritize healthcare structures in big and small things to continue the advancements.
How Social Media Can Combat Health Issues
Social media can be a vital tool in how people can improve healthcare and increase awareness of the public. Medical students are highlighting the ways that health care perpetuates disparities. Social media like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter have become critical for medical professionals to enlighten the public about ongoing discrepancies. They are fighting against medical prejudice and the unique ways that the recent generation of increasing medical professionals oppose systemic differences in medicine.
Medical equations, for example, that measure kidney function take race into account, making it more difficult for Black individuals to receive kidney transplants. Likewise, early-set Lyme disease rashes look different on darker skin than lighter skin. Black patients tend to get a later diagnosis for this reason. Students didn't learn to recognize this condition. Pulse oximeters had trouble measuring the breathing of specific patients.
Gamers and influencers have used social media to be an example to followers and form habits that became routines. A gym stream session on Twitch forms a supportive community to ask questions and remove the stigma or embarrassment of working out in a public gym. Sustain mental harmony by playing games and connecting with their community. Likewise, always take the time to reset the moment to take time to unplug, especially before bed.
HealthTech: AI Diagnosing Alzheimer's, MedTech, and VR Heart Health
The SXSW conference likes to focus on the future and current trends. What could come next? As the global incidence of autoimmune diseases increases, VR (virtual reality) technology delivers innovative approaches to enhance assessments and deploy refined therapeutic resolutions relevant to our aging population. Medical breakthroughs could occur with virtual reality advancements. Current neuroscience research with breakthrough Virtual Reality technology will affect medicine, clinical care, and personal health and wellness. These inventions will be crucial to enhancing brain soundness and promoting senior care.
For new devices, MedTech investors look at upcoming products and emerging technologies. If it works and proves it to customers and regulators, can they build it and protect it? Can you get it paid? Will it be profitable? Prove that the product can save money and increase efficiency? Successful companies focus on technologies that they know. They reach out to physicians to see if they would use the potential new product. Allow clinical trial companies to monitor on their own to save money during this process, so funding does not run out. Open the medical records and supporting de-centralized trials can cut costs, too.
Scientists are on the verge of massive breakthroughs in medicine that would create a new paradigm for healthcare, potentially curing even the most challenging diseases by concentrating on our bodies, genes, and cells. For Alzheimer's Disease and other brain diseases, speech biomarkers are the near future of improved patient outcomes. Pioneering speech-based examinations for neurological & psychiatric disorders, creating authorized biomarkers to catch manifestation via natural language processing and AI. The technology revolutionizes unknown conditions from a clinical trial for Alzheimer's Disease to identifying detailed speech shifts in people. This future could be here before you know it.
Since 1988, WSi has been recruiting medical professionals and following emerging trends to stay up to date in the health care industry. We do this to make sure we can find the best candidates for your organization. If you are looking for your next role, speak to a recruiter today.