Hospitals are constantly adopting new digital tools in order to catch up with industries like banking, retail and travel, which are decades ahead when it comes to modernizing their technology and meeting consumer expectations. As health systems roll out new technologies across their organizations — such as wearables, virtual reality headsets, patient-facing apps and telehealth portals — they need to ensure that their patients are comfortable using these tools. 

Aaron Miri, Baptist Health’s chief digital and information officer, shared advice to help health systems build their patients’ trust in tech digital tools during an interview that took place last week at ViVE, a healthcare innovation conference in Nashville.

“Don’t be creepy with technology,” he said. “We have to show our cards. We have to talk to our patients in simple, common language that they understand. We must understand the technical literacy rate is very low everywhere, and that’s okay.”

When health systems introduce novel technologies like augmented reality or virtual nurses, patients often have no clue how they work. Not surprisingly, this can sometimes lead people to feel distrustful of the technology in question or make them not want to engage with it.

Most patients simply want their health concerns dealt with quickly and efficiently, Miri pointed out. He said that “nine times out of 10,” patients don’t understand how a shiny new piece of tech will help them feel better and need someone to explain how it fits into their care plan.

Health systems also should seek patients’ consent before they share or sell any data they collect from them — such as information collected through wearable medical devices or patient portals.

Health systems may think it’s okay to share patients’ deidentified data because they’re not violating HIPAA, Miri explained. But this nonconsensual sharing of deidentified data shouldn’t be normalized just because its permissible by HIPAA, he argued.

“As an industry, we’ve gotten so far away from the human element of treating patients like patients,” he declared. “We forget and look at them and say ‘How much are you worth? How much is your data worth to me? How many wearables can I put on you and bill for this? How can I poke you nine times instead of 10 times and save money and therefore generate a return?’”

Miri said he can understand how health systems got caught up in this way of thinking — the pandemic greatly expedited healthcare’s digital transformation and many organizations are adopting new digital tools in a rapid, sometimes frenzied manner. 

Health systems’ push to modernize their technology is welcome and long overdue, but health systems need to make sure they’re blazing this path with transparency and patient education at the forefront of their mind, he explained. Otherwise, they could lose patient trust.

“When you’re creepy, you lose trust. It’s very simple,” Miri said.

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