[00:02]
It’s not about selling, it’s about helping. So, if we kind of reframe how we’re thinking about DTC in terms of direct to care, we can create experiences that are more educational, more empathetic, and more actionable.

[00:17]
If you are interested in collecting your own health information and you want it to have some meaning and not be a novelty, you need to use standards because that’s the only way that we can have the kind of integration interoperability and understanding in a holistic way.

[00:41]
Farm marketing is changing and fast. With AI evolving by the hour and consumer expectations rising just as quickly, it’s easy to lose focus, chasing trends instead of strategy. That’s why we’re joined by two leaders who bring clarity to the chaos. Stephanie Trunzo, the new CEO of Merge, as well as Pat McGloin, managing director of health and life sciences emerge. In this conversation, they’re going to break down how marketers can stay grounded, make smarter digital decisions, and create real impact for patients in a tech-driven world.

[01:09]
I’m Jack O’Brien, managing editor of MM+M, and this is the MM+M Agency 100 Strategies for Success podcast with Merge.

[01:20]
Stephanie and Patrick, it’s wonderful to have you on the show today. Thank you for joining us. Hey, it’s so good to be here. Good afternoon, Jack. Great to be here. I’m going to start off the conversation with a question for you, Stephanie, and, you know, we talked just a few days ago. So it’s it’s wonderful to kind of reconnect with you on one of the subjects that we had parched through an interview, which is this idea of how to define consumerism and healthcare. And I want to throw it over to you because you come from the tech world. Obviously, you’ve had your interactions and understanding of consumerism. How does it impact the healthcare industry? What does that mean to you?

[01:50]
Yeah, I think it’s kind of an interesting one because we hear a lot about consumer health, and we think immediately about things like wearables or ora rings, and these kinds of things that are giving people the ability to understand and monitor their health themselves.

[02:04]
But I think that when we think about consumerism and how it applies to health care, it’s really about taking some of these themes and the concepts that have been baked into industry like retail, like personalization, convenience, um these concepts around things like efficiency and applying them to the health industry.

[02:24]
And I think what’s really unique about taking these kinds of consumerism concepts and applying them in this space, is that, you know, we as humans are these individuals living our lives where we don’t break down when we’re interacting with different industries in our mind. We’re just living our lives.

[02:42]
And so, our expectations are being set, you know, by things like retail or by the other ways that we’re interacting, you know, through our own experiences, we expect those same kinds of concepts, those same kinds of seamless experiences to apply, even if now we’re talking about our health in a clinical sense. Pat, I want to bring you into the conversation here too. How do you define consumerism in healthcare? What does that mean to you?

[03:08]
Well, consumerism in healthcare, as as Stephanie mentioned, is really about human-centered design, right? It’s really about thinking about that person and that individual and the jobs that they’re trying to accomplish, the pains and gains they have in front of them and designing an experience to make that um as seem And when you talk about some of those factors that are out there, I think of the different social and economic aspects, you know, I used to cover hospitals in a previous life, and there was always a conversation of the social determinants of health and how that plays an outsized role in the healthcare journey.

[03:42]
What are some of those factors that you pinpoint where it’s like this is how the consumer is actually being impacted and we have to meet them in kind? Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, the healthcare ecosystems become more complex to navigate, while at the same time, consumers have less bandwidth than ever.

[04:00]
people are juggling multiple jobs, supporting aging parents, sick kids, ballet, soccer practice. They just don’t have the time or the cognitive processing capacity for unnecessary complexity. So, there has to be a better way, as Stephanie mentioned. And it can be exemplified by those experiences that they expect to have with consumer brands. They don’t change their expectations when they’re interacting with healthcare brands.

[04:30]
The expectation remains the same. So what happens when we’re not designing the healthcare experience in a human-centric way, we’re creating cognitive dissonance. Right? I may like your brand or I may like your therapy, but I’m frustrated by the suboptimal experience that your brand is putting me through. Right? The subtext that you’re communicating in that situation is that you’re not valuing that consumer or their time.

[04:58]
And this can undermine even the best most clever creative communications. You know, we always say the proof needs to match the promise. So, the proof in this case is the experience and the promise are the words, the clever phrases, the the creative that we use to engage those audiences, but those two have to be working together for really to create a situation where you’re not having that cognitive dissonance.

[05:24]
And that’s why I want to bring you, Stephanie, back into the conversation because obviously, again, coming from the tech world, you I mean, the tech industry by and large has really led the way, I would say, in terms of a lot of the consumer experience. You think of the impact that Amazon has had. Not only in the tech space, but in the retail sector, they’ve tried for years to get into healthcare spaces as well.

[05:42]
And and to your point, Pat, you know, people may love their doctor, they may love their hospital, they may love the drug or medication that they’re on from a pharmaceutical company, but it may not mean that they enjoy the experience that they have as a consumer because they’ve gotten so used to the Walmart, the Amazon, etc. Stephanie, talk a little bit about the outsized influence that we see from some of these other sectors in terms of healthcare and how that really shapes the consumer experience too or you know the lack thereof.

[06:12]
Yeah Yeah, well, you know, I think that you look at the people that are working in the health care system and whether we’re talking about, you know, the business operators or we’re talking about the practitioners themselves, you know, it is it is a perilous industry. There is a lot going on. They have a lot of challenges that they’re trying to juggle.

[06:29]
And I think that, you know, kind of to your point, the role that technology should play is not in creating additional barriers to have that kind of experience that Pat was describing, it should be an asset in helping them do their jobs better, more seamlessly, and deliver those kinds of um really intuitive and meaningful experiences for humans. We’ll call them consumers, we’ll call them patients, we’ll call them members, you know, whatever words you want to use.

[06:56]
But in the end, any of us that have a body and a mind, you know, we participate in the health care system. So, I think technologies role and increasingly so and maybe with an urgency we’ve never seen before because of how rapidly it is changing, it is showing up in a way that we can race and we can take advantage of. I think about things like AI being, you know, the holy grail we looked for for a long time was the ability to deliver messages to individuals that really respect them as a whole person.

[07:26]
So, you know, the jack that I market to is the same jack that I treat as a patient. So, we cannot be thinking about them like different people.

[07:34]
It’s technology is giving us this ability now to deliver messages in a way that are not, you know, kind of Divorcing the complexity of understanding of these very, you know, what can be jargon-based language into something that is personalized that it feels like it’s, you know, being delivered directly to you in a way that is empowering you to make decisions. So, I really see technology stepping in here in a way that is different than the way it has before.

[08:03]
It’s not just about creating these kind of transactional systems. It’s really in support of building personalized relationships and the kind of trust Yeah, I’m definitely in favor of any sort of technology that gets us to one singular jack when it comes to going through the Yeah entire journey in particular.

[08:22]
Pat, I want to bring you back into the conversation because I’m really curious about how this all kind of leads us towards, you know, what I think we’ve all been gravitating towards in the healthcare space, this idea of the direct to patient advertising and really embracing that concept. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I think historically direct to patient marketing was treated with caution and And for good reason, you know, privacy, compliance, complexity of health decisions make a lot of brands and MLR teams hesitant.

[08:50]
Um, but as Stephanie said, the world’s changed. And in Merge, we’re leaning into that expectation responsibility. We’re using data, AI, and we’re developing and helping our clients develop compliant tech stacks to help meet these patients where they’re at. Whether that’s a moment of curiosity or concern or care activation, it’s not about selling it’s about helping.

[09:13]
So, if we kind of reframe how we’re thinking about DTC in terms of direct to care, we can create experiences that are more educational, more empathetic, and more actionable. I’m curious too because Stephanie brought this up earlier, you know, this real potential of AI. And when we had our conversation the other day, we were talking about this kind of pragmatism around AI and actualizing these very heavy concepts and making the patient experience one that’s much more seamless and effective in terms of outcomes.

[09:42]
when you look at AI in terms of personalization, what stands out to you? How do we actually make that something where it’s like, “Oh yeah, we have all this data and we have this supercharged innovation that can do something with it. How does that empower personalization when it comes to healthcare?” So it’s it AI is really unlocking the ultimate goal of omnichannel marketing and that’s personalization at scale.

[10:03]
You know, it used to be really challenging to navigate PHI and hyper to deliver on-brand compliant content at scale because marketers just couldn’t get it through the MLR review process. It would base It would literally seize the approval engine and things would just sit for months. And so too many varies variations many claim combinations, too much perceived risk was how it was looked at by the MLR team.

[10:30]
So AI is really changing this because now we have the ability to create an unlimited amount of content variation tailored to the platform, the phase in the journey and the needs of the target audience and we can do it quickly and efficiently and compliantly through the use of message maps and message matrices and combining all of the footnotes that go along with the various combinations that will come out of the AI engine.

[10:57]
So what this does is not only allow us to deliver that more personalized content within the right context of the journey, but it’s also enhancing our ability to have AI help shepherd that patient or caregiver through the journey through things like next best action.

[11:18]
So based on the content someone interacts with, we can leverage AI to suggest the next best action or serve up the next best piece of content that’s going to help them make the next best decision. So, that’s a real, you know, example of how we’re using it today.

[11:34]
I want to ask you a question that, again, came up in a previous conversation with Stephanie I had about this idea of data ownership and I’m I’m curious what that looks like in application when it comes to healthcare, which is some of you can argue the most sensitive data that’s out there. Like, what does data ownership look like? What does that mean to a consumer to have that data ownership? And then if you’re a brand and was that mean to kind of say, yeah, we want to empower you in this sort of way. You have your data and now we’re going to be able to improve your outcomes that way.

[12:03]
One of the things that I would say is just even stepping back on data ownership for a second, there is still a lot of education that needs to be done on raising awareness in the US at least, right? That people actually do own their health data, that it actually you do have a right to all of that information that that is yours and you can access it and you can own it.

[12:24]
Um, so I think like a starting point is a little bit more education and awareness on what it means to actually advocate for yourself and own your own data. I think that the the second thing to think about is that this landscape is changing a little bit. You know, technology has made it infinitely cheaper to have an infinite amount of data. But what are you going to do with it?

[12:45]
And you know, Pat and I were actually talking earlier today about the number of clients that we see who are trying to figure out what to do and in fact spending a lot of money in building their tech stacks and building um like a a data optimization in a way that unfortunately they didn’t plan ahead enough about what kind of insights that they were going to want to get from that data.

[13:09]
So, you know, it’s also about thinking ahead about setting up your data structure in the right kind of way so that you can use it for building these kinds of experiences that are personalized that are generating those kinds of actions that we want to see, whether it’s through those next best action kind of prompts, or it’s just through a care plan. Um, but in order to do it, you know, you’ve got to be wise up front about how you’re thinking about setting up what that is going to look like in terms of insights down the road.

[13:39]
I think the last thing I’d say about, you know, data is that it’s kind of a a shifting world. Like I I was looking at my iPhone the other day and I had an iOS update and there wasn’t even enough storage room on my phone to apply the update and so I’m looking looking at the apps and you know what’s taking up all the space and usually it’s your camera roll because it’s video and photos and all of these things.

[14:01]
And as somebody who is a a very health-oriented, I’ll say device geek as well, like I have every wearable, everything connected. My Apple Health storage was in the top three apps taking up data on my phone. And I thought, wow, like our world really is changing. So, you know, being thoughtful about what does it mean that now each of of us individually if you are active in owning your data.

[14:29]
It’s not even just brands that need to think about what their data strategies are, but it’s almost at an individual level now. So, where we can help our clients help their end users, their patients, their humans, etc. Think a little bit differently about which of their health data assets are going to be meaningful and how they connect that into a clinical story so that it’s not just something they’re managing in their iPhone ecosystem, but it’s part of a real health journey conversation. No, for sure.

[14:58]
And Pat, I want to get your thoughts on that too because I think as Stephanie finished off there, like this is part of such a larger narrative at place that’s really kind of falling into place in that sort of way, but it we still have to get there. Like this is still not just an overnight thing. Yeah, and you know, I think Stephanie is a power user of all of this uh, you know, health data.

[15:20]
And when you think about how consumers are using data, they’re more willing to share it if they understand how you’re going to use that information or that data to make their life better. So that’s why it’s important when we’re developing these ecosystems or apps or or experiences that we’re using content to help empower the people. And then it comes down to trust and transparency.

[15:47]
Are you taking a benevolent approach to the use of my data? Do you In other words, do you have my best interest at heart? In healthcare, you know, this type of execution or activation must be pursued along side a robust compliance framework.

[16:05]
And we’ve seen and we’ve been a part of and we oftentimes lead, you know, cross-functional approaches where we’re pulling together and integrating marketing with decision makers along with IT and legal and compliance expertise to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table from the beginning and we’re taking all of those perspectives into account as we’re starting to architect these different experiences that we want to create.

[16:32]
Um so this helps to make sure that when we’re, you know, adopting new tech solutions, patient data is remaining secure, but it’s also enabling innovative digital engagement. I appreciate both you making the time to come on the podcast and unpack some really interesting and relevant issues that are at play for the industry and I want to conclude our conversation kind of in summation of what we’ve been talking about here when it comes to consumerism and health care.

[16:59]
And Pat, I’ll throw out to you Stephanie, you can take us home, but what’s the key takeaway about consumerism and health care that you think your peers our audience and medical marketers should keep in mind going forward. Yeah, I think we to to summarize, I think we need to shift the thinking from being product-centered producers to being people-centered problem solvers, right? It’s no longer enough to focus solely on the features of a device or the efficacy of a therapy.

[17:29]
We have to see as as Stephanie said, the whole human. The treatment is just part of their health journey, but what matters to just as much as how we support these patients in accessing care and navigating their options and feeling understood throughout their experience. So consumer-first healthcare means designing around the full context of people’s lives and not just their diagnosis.

[17:52]
I think that just to build on that, Pat, I would say that the other angle I would maybe leave as a takeaway is that I would encourage everybody who is part of the health landscape, whether that, you know, is a consumer health angle clinical, health, angle, life sciences, angle.

[18:11]
Look at where you can adopt standards because, you know, the points we were making on messy data or not being able to gain insights from it or even more importantly when, you know, all of us as a power user I can speak from this point of view, you know, if you are interested in collecting your own health information and you want it to have some meaning and not be a novelty, you need to use standards because that’s the only way that we can have the kind of integration interoperability and understanding in a holistic way, so that it isn’t just novel.

[18:42]
It is medical. It is clinical that we can connect into clinical systems. So adopting standards, using standards, even proposing standards where they don’t exist is something that I would say is really, really important and it isn’t just about the experience or marketing. It is about, you know, Jack being one Jack. Like we said at the beginning, like we want to understand the whole human and using standards are Are one of the critical parts of being able to do that.

[19:10]
Was that Lord of the Rings where it’s one ring to rule them all and we have one one jack to rule all of the healthcare data so. That’s it. A jack of all trades. A jack of all trades. I’ve been called that a time or two here at MMN. We really appreciate you both coming on the show to talk about what I always find a very fascinating topic again both from when I used to cover hospital and health systems now covering pharma and biotech. I think there’s a lot of lessons learned. All the consumerism front a lot more progress needs to be made there.

[19:36]
So I hope that we can have Follow up conversation down the line about how much progress we have made and where there’s still room for improvement. But thank you both for coming on the show. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Jack.