Redesigning Healthcare: Guest Post by Kirt Hine

Kirt Hine | The Value of Openness | August 17, 2012

Today’s guest post is written by Kirt Hine, who was a research intern at PatientsLikeMe in June and July.  On his last day, Kirt gave a presentation to the entire company about his experience at the 2012 Healthcare Experience Design Conference, held in Boston last March.  It made such an impression that we asked him to share his takeaways on the blog.

The Healthcare Experience Design Conference, known in short as “HxD,” is somewhat of an anomaly.  It deviates from traditional healthcare conferences in that you have seasoned healthcare professionals sitting alongside academics, graphic designers, product experts, marketing agents, and entrepreneurs.  You know that feeling you get when you find something that you didn’t even know was missing?  That’s the way I felt attending HxD 2012.  It’s a true melting pot of professionals, and it hits an innovative sweet spot in the ever changing world of healthcare.

Preventative health, open data, electronic medical records and mobile health were just a few of the themes buzzing around HxD 2012.  But for me, the overall theme of the conference was the inherent trend of consumer-centered health.  We are witnessing a paradigm shift in healthcare – one in which patients are becoming customers.  With technological innovations and proper user interfaces, these customers are taking their health into their own hands.