HealthSparq’s conference features health care users rather than industry insiders

 

It’s easy for organizations to talk about the importance of the customer. It’s another to actually put the customer at the center of the conversation. To walk that talk, HealthSparq—which partners with health plans to offer their members intuitive provider search and cost-estimating tools—convenes an annual conference and hosts a content hub that stand out from all the others in the health care industry. Dubbed “What’s The Fix,” the conference has won first place in the “Patient-Focused Content” category of Ragan’s 2018 Health Care PR and Marketing Awards. 

The conference is designed “to have regular people with amazing stories teach the health care industry, rather than highlighting the health care executives and industry insiders that dominate most health care events,” according to HealthSparq. This year’s free event, held in partnership with the Design Institute for Health at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, brought 17 speaker stories to the industry, viewed by both in-person attendees and those participating online.

Media outreach resulted in amplifying those stories through coverage in multiple outlets. The carefully cultivated social community also spread the word. The 2018 conference brought the total number of stories on the conference blog to more than 50. 

Other statistics from the conference are equally impressive: Nearly 1,000 participants online or in person from 15 countries and almost every U.S. state, 77.3 million impressions on the hashtag #WTFix (up 223 percent from 2017) and 773 Twitter users who tweeted continuously throughout the conference. A post-event survey produced equally impressive results, with every respondent indicating they would participate again.

Congratulations for a successful conference to Anna Greene, Burt Rosen, Heather Burton, Erin Sellnow, Alison Julander and Wen Chiu.