Noah Rosenheck, UX Designer at Zansors, attended the HxRefactored conference this year. The conference convened April 5 and 6 in Boston to cover topics across design and technology in health. In today’s post, Noah shares his take on the event.
Session Highlights
HxR 2016 was great. I was able to go to several great sessions that expanded the way I thought about things, or introduced me to entirely new concepts. I can already envision new ways to apply these concepts at Zansors, where I design user experiences in apps that allow consumers to take charge of their health and know their own health status.
Three notable sessions included:
1. The session on designing to change health behavior with Dustin DiTommaso and Dr. Geoff Williams was a session I particularly enjoyed. It introduced some powerful ideas about how to not only think about changing behaviors, but also to frame and structure change over time.
A fellow attendee @comicnurse illustrated the speaker’s points on motivational dynamics. Here you’ll see autonomy is a value to consider in driving behavior change:
2. The session on New Models for Care Delivery covered the issues that primary care providers (PCPs) face––and shared how companies are trying to change how people find and interact with their PCP. Daniel Stein, CMO at Walmart Care Clinics, explained the strategy and thinking behind their Care Clinic PCP initiative––always interesting to hear how some of the world’s largest companies are engaging in health and tech.
3. I didn’t expect to learn about dance at HxR. On one hand, it may not be super relevant to the scope of the conference itself. But, breaking the ice and giving people who are otherwise strangers something to engage over fosters conversation and connections between attendees.
That's how new ideas get shared and opportunities get created.
Ultimately, this conference was about giving us an opportunity to connect. And beyond that, isn’t there something hypocritical about sitting all day in rooms where people tell you in great detail how bad it is to be sitting all day, and what they are working on to help people change their behavior so they aren’t sitting all day?
What’s next in health and technology?
At HxR2016, behavior change was a strong theme. I think this is because it’s also where there’s great opportunity: there are so many chronic conditions that people live with day in and day out, only because they think they have to. The truth is, many of these conditions are manageable, and technology can help make managing them easier.
It's important that technology meet people where they are.
We have to reduce the time, money and cognitive energy it takes to connect people with the healthcare they need. For me, this has made me think about just how Zansors will be part of that change. We’re prepared to meet people in their own homes and at their own convenience. We reduce the resistance in a patient’s life, so they can engage with their health and know themselves.
We can help people make real and positive changes in their behavior in very specific ways––whether that’s stopping smoking and learning how to overcome or improve insomnia. This becomes a powerful tool when you go beyond a brief, occasional doctor’s visit, and the patient has their health in their own hands.
All in all, HxRefactored was engaging and encouraging. This is where people who are revolutionizing health and healthcare are convening to create better and better technology and design. I know Zansors looks forward to being part of that momentum.