← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Why Midlife Women Are Healthcare’s Super Consumers with Michelle Silva of NRC Health
00:20:01
Loading summary
Transcript15 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hi everyone, this is Erica Spicer Mason with Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. So joining me for today's conversation is Michelle Silva, the strategic advisor of Consumer experience for NRC Health. And Michelle and I will be talking about findings from her latest research report titled the Rising Self Advocacy of Female Healthcare Consumers at Midlife. Michelle, so excited to dig into this conversation with you today. Thank you for making time for Beckers.
- [00:31]
B
Thanks so much. I appreciate it, Erica.
- [00:34]
A
Yeah, well, it's great to have you with us and I thought to get us started, it would be helpful if you could share a little bit more about yourself and your work in healthcare and particularly what led you to explore the experiences and needs of women at midlife.
- [00:48]
B
Sure. So I have worked in healthcare for about 25 years, mostly within an academic medical center, but I also recently had a five year stint on the payer side. And my work has largely been in executive and internal communications leadership, but I've also led marketing, transformation and change communications and even philanthropy communications. And all of that has really given me a broad view of consumer and patient audiences as well as experience management and consumer centricity. And how I came to the topic of perimenopause care was really a confluence of personal, academic and professional factors starting really a couple years ago. So last year was a bit rough for me thanks to my own perimenopause journey. And I carried a portable fan around shamelessly and that fan became a conversation starter both with women and men all experiencing the same issues, either personally or in supporting a spouse or or partner. And at the same time, while going through perimenopause, I recently earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins in the history of medicine and that focused on gender relations, the patient doctor relationship and how the female body is managed or not. And so my traditional and social media feeds are really robust in these topics. And I started noticing that a growing number of women were getting really vocal around dealing with perimenopause. And a lot of it is funny, all going through these symptoms that make us crazy. But also I noticed that more and more people started talking about how frustrated they are about not being able to find answers and support from their traditional care providers. And ads by online quote unquote femtech care companies started popping up on my feed, as did ads for these weird supplements and creams and some even being sold by celebrities. And so fast forward to my now newish thought leadership role at NRC Health. And our team recently published A data driven perspective on the connection between trust and patient consumer experience and the drivers of trust. And then ding, ding, ding. It hit me that this is what women all over are complaining about when it comes to the lack of meaningful perimenopause care. And at a meta level, it appeared to me that they don't trust their doctors to address the stage of midlife. So that got me curious. I looked at NRC health market data and I saw an uptick in concern for perimenopausal wellness over the last few years. And I also realized from other research that in general, there is a wide gap in women's health care between the childbearing years and the post menopausal years. And those life phases are predictable and so is perimenopause. So I wondered, why is this not a standard of care, meaning regular and routine? And how is this gap impacting trust in the health system by women at midlife?
- [04:18]
A
Yeah, Michelle, it is fascinating to hear how you've connected the dots on all of this on your own and through NRC's existing research and new research. And by the way, I just want to say thank you as well for sharing your story too. You know, there's. I find that there's nothing like a personal experience to really like to give you that deep empathy and that drive to explore an issue and then drive meaningful change. So it's really wonderful to hear how this experience has shaped you and the research and work that you're doing at nrc. And I know in the report you describe women in this life stage as, quote, unquote, super consumers. So could you define that term for our audience and maybe share a little bit about how you think this can inform health care leaders, patient engagement and also care delivery strategies?
- [05:07]
B
Sure. So super consumers is a description by an author in Forbes, and I really like it because to me it connotes the weight and power that women at midlife have when it comes to spending. In particular, they have trillions in purchasing power and they are almost entirely responsible for household purchasing decisions, including health care. NRC health data also shows that many of these women at midlife also are caring for both children and aging parents, which means they're controlling or at least influencing what is spent by both groups on health care for health systems. This means that being aware that these women, so Gen Xers like me and older millennials, they typically hold the purse strings and make the decisions around where to get care or not for themselves and their families. So their experiences, good or bad, with a health system determines whether or not they're loyal and whether or not they recommend a health system to their family and friends. And that also means that experience management across the system is vital now of course for every consumer and patient right across the journey. But as super consumers, these women around age 50 wield quite a bit of power. And they could have a good or bad influence on NPS scores and other experience and reputation based measurements based on their experience related to perimenopause care. And I think this is really important to know because NRC Health data is showing that trust is a top driver of likelihood to recommend. So when it comes to consumers, they are a whopping 300% more likely to recommend a top of mind hospital if they trust it. And patients are 65% more likely. So in the context of this perimenopause gap, in particular, health systems should consider how to lean into meeting the needs of this critical consumer and patient base, women at midlife to maintain trust and loyalty.
- [07:28]
A
This is so fascinating. Michelle, thank you for sharing. You know, it's pretty remarkable to think about how this patient population, women at midlife are some of the most, it sounds like understudied. Yet to your point, about them being also at the same time these very crucial decision makers when it comes to not only the care decisions they're making for themselves and their family, but also what they recommend to their network, whether that be friends, family. So really, really interesting stuff here. And I know that you've, you've touched on this concept of trust quite a bit, so I want to go a little bit deeper there. I know that NRC Health's research points to reliability, compet and respect as key drivers of trust. So how do these elements typically show up or maybe even fall short when women seek care for perimenopause or other midlife health concerns?
- [08:20]
B
Sure. So let's start with reliability. And that quite simply means a health system does what it says it's going to do. So in other words, it's what I call walking the talk of what marketing puts out and what your brand promise and mission vision values say. And most important, reliability is about consistency. So if a consumer or patient can't rely on a health system, it doesn't just create disappointment, it also creates doubt. And that doubt in turn becomes a lens through which all future interactions are viewed. And so reliability is delivering on your promises consistently. So let's say you're a woman whose healthcare has encompassed, you know, prenatal and maternity care, and that went fine. You've built a great relationship with your clinicians over the years. And then, you know, 10, 15 years later, you go to your PCP for help for all these weird symptoms you're having during perimenopause and it suddenly feels like crickets in the exam room. Then that long built foundation of trust suddenly feels a little squishy. So you've counted on them for care and they've delivered reliably so far. But now this is different and there is now a crack in the foundation. And that is because trust is so vulnerable. And when it comes to competence, NRC health data shows that trust related sentiments include clinical staff, being highly skilled, offering state of the art treatments and technologies, and even safety protocols. I believe that perceived competence is probably the biggest challenge to trust when it comes to perimenopause care. All you have to do is, like I said, type perimenopause into a browser or search bar and you'll see so much narrative that this is unfortunately showing that competence is not always perceived. Now, when it comes to the trust driver of respect, that means you see and treat me as a unique person. And what I hear, and I see a lot in mainstream wellness culture and social media is that women don't feel, feel, they are seen and heard when it comes to perimenopause care. And so these are women coming into the clinic already frustrated and exhausted from their symptoms. They're having hormonal mood swings, they don't feel like themselves. So they sort of collide in the exam room with a physician who has quite frankly, limited tools for support, who might only know to say, oh, it's just part of getting older. It's probably just stress and your usual depression. Try exercising more or even, you know, your labs are normal, so there's nothing to see here. And that can feel dismissive, patronizing and personally disrespectful. And boom, there's a big breakdown in trust. There's disappointment and doubt, incompetence and respect. And when that happens, they seek support elsewhere. And a growing number of women are turning to online and retail care companies.
- [12:04]
A
Yeah, Michelle, I really appreciate how you thoroughly outlined those three elements. Reliability, competence, respect. I think it's really helpful to the picture that you just painted with an example of what a clinical interaction might look like when a patient, a woman at midlife, is frustrated not only in what she's experiencing physically and mentally, but then how the care interaction can go. I think that's probably helpful for our listeners to hear and for health system leaders to consider. And you know, you mentioned this, this trend that you're seeing in women turning to resources elsewhere that might include female health startups, or femtech as I believe you called it earlier in our discussion, and other direct to consumer platforms. You know, we're really seeing those become so much more prominent in health care. So from your perspective, what approaches or practices do you think traditional healthcare organizations should start to embrace from some of those newer models?
- [13:01]
B
Yeah. So first, these quote unquote femtech companies and similar care platforms, they are consumer centered, period. So they are listening first, they are offering choices and they are personalizing care to individual needs. So when it comes to perimenopause, they are treating it as a visible and an essential part of a whole health journey. They also provide in general, not just the perimenopause care companies, but other direct to consumer and retail companies. They're providing what NRC health data shows is a top driver of trust. And that's accessible, convenient, easy access. So this means people can get an appointment with a clinician when they need it and where they need it. And that includes virtual options as well as evening and weekend appointments. Because if consumers struggle to get an appointment when and where they need it, that lack of ease and convenience and responsiveness communicates something really powerful to consumers. And that is, we're not here when you need us. And that erodes trust before they've even walked through a clinic door. Think about that. And the reality is access is often the first real touch point in a consumer's healthcare journey and it sends a strong signal of reliability from that point forward and it sets the tone for their expectations. And finally, these direct to consumer online retail femtech companies, they are proactive, not reactive. When it comes to perimenopause care specifically, it's seen as something that should be anticipated and part of standard care. And this is critical because in a consumer centered model, care is proactive and predictive. We reach out before you know you need us. And knowing and anticipating is a hallmark of exceptional experience design. It shows that the system sees, understands and cares about the person before they ask for help. And it also turns a transaction into a relationship. And we know that good relationships drive loyalty and trust. Now, when it comes to perimenopause, with the exception of those with medical or biological reasons, we know that women will go through it. Right? It's no surprise. So that makes it that much easier to predict and anticipate using age related and other demographics and patient data. Health systems can use this for targeted outreach and to understand the needs and the sentiments of perimenopause age women, which is around 45 to 55 years old in their markets, and women age 40 to 44 also could benefit from early outreach to help them recognize the signs of aging into this life phase. Now, I realize that some of these things are really difficult for traditional health systems to provide, such as evening appointments, for example. However, I really think it's important for them to understand what these competitors, these disruptors, are offering and how they're differentiating themselves and capturing a measure of market share and loyalty. And most important, what a fantastic opportunity for health systems to meet this moment around perimenopause health. There is so much energy around this topic and it centers on one of their most valuable consumer groups, their super consumers. And what a great opportunity to both enhance patient care while also driving trust and loyalty.
- [17:06]
A
Yeah, Michelle, and I really appreciate too what you were saying about how these characteristics of the direct to consumer platforms, the femtech, the way that they're considering the holistic patient journey, personalization, access and availability, how those tie back to some of those key concepts that NRC Health has pulled from its research like reliability, competence and respect. It all seems to align and intersect. So really can't thank you enough for how you've described this really critical issue for our audience. And just throughout our conversation I have to say I've been thinking about really how much I've seen this topic emerge in mainstream media. I know Oprah has had a significant about this topic recently. So to your point about health systems, considering that this is something really to pay attention to, I can see that coming through completely. So thank you so much again for all the insights. Michelle, I feel like I could talk to you for a long time, but I know we have to wrap here. Is there anything that we didn't cover or final thoughts that you wanted to share?
- [18:09]
B
I feel it's very important to note that many of the contributing factors to the challenges that women are saying they have with perimenopause care are outside of health systems and and doctors total span of control. They are caused by conflating factors such as an alarming lack of perimenopause and menopause curriculum in medical schools and residency, Even for OB GYNs, longstanding gender bias in research and concerns and confusion surrounding a report decades ago on some randomized trials that effectively paused hormone replacement therapy. However, consumers and patients don't know these things, right? So this is why we're seeing this really loud and growing narrative. And so when women go to their clinicians and they feel like they're not getting the kind of competent care they expect. Then again doubt emerges. They lose trust in the physician or health system and it's so hard to win back. But if health systems lean into building and demonstrating that reliability, competence and respect in this area, they really can help their super consumers better manage their health through the midlife transition and keep them loyal to their system.
- [19:25]
A
Such great points to end on. Michelle, thank you again for the time that you spent with Becker's today for sharing your research, your areas of passion and your interest in this topic and really the growing need for attention here. So thank you again.
- [19:39]
B
Thank you so much Erica for listening and your empathy and I very much appreciate it.
- [19:44]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And of course we also want to thank our podcast sponsor for today NRC Health listeners be sure to tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page@beckershospitalreview.com.