Full Schedule

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Breakfast on Wednesday morning before the general session begins.

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In the most competitive business environment in modern history, the winners today are often those make it remarkably easy to do business with them. Being better tuned-in to the increasingly unique needs and expectations of your patients and customers creates better experiences and stronger loyalty. In this eye-opening, high-content and entertaining presentation, popular customer experience expert David Avrin, CSP, shines a light on the profound shift in patient expectations while showing how everyone has a role in eliminating barriers, engaging prospective customers and creating patient experiences worth sharing.

• David Avrin, President, The Customer Experience Advantage

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Break in the exhibit hall. Join the HCIC sponsors and exhibitors for insightful information, coffee, drinks and snacks!

The charge: completely reimagine the health consumer experience — in 12 weeks. We could throw out everything, but only with good reason and a strong plan. Through targeted research, UNC Health identified four focus areas: increased access; personalized, contextual touchpoints; streamlined data exchange; and collaborative wellness journey enablement. Find out how UNC delivered on these areas, gained consensus and buy-in along the way, and designed a roadmap for how to actually do it.

• Matt Schwabel, Executive Director, Marketing Technology & Operations,, UNC Health
• Katie Templin, Senior Director of Experience Design, Hero Digital

What can you learn from >1B outreaches? A whole lot! With heightened expectations, marketers need proven ways to drive ROI from their outreach – and fast. Like how CHI St. Vincent’s scored 500 prospective cardiology patients in just one month with a multi-channel campaign. Find out what’s working (and what’s not) as organizations re-engage patients, attract prospects and drive the campaign ROI your C-suite expects.

• Bonnie Ward, Market Director, Marketing and Communications, CHI St. Vincent
• Nikki Heider, Director, Marketing, Welltok

In healthcare, customer relationship management (CRM) systems present a unique challenge. Effectively bettering your communication with patient, provider and caregiver audiences involves many moving parts among clinical, marketing and operational departments, data management, enterprise collaboration and more. In this session, unpack the essential considerations when beginning your healthcare CRM adoption journey and hear successful case studies from the Cleveland Clinic that may spark ideas for your enterprise-wide implementation.

• Matt Bakaitis, Senior Director, Digital Marketing & Communications, Cleveland Clinic
• Tom Hileman, President, Hileman Group

As COVID 19 subsides, rebuilding elective business will be difficult. Prospective patients have new sensitivities and media habits, and privacy measures make them harder to track. Healthcare systems must look to new data signals, requiring a new model for the industry. Hear how the Mount Sinai Health System is finding new ways to identify consumers in specific healthcare modes, and then engage them effectively in a crowded competitive environment.

• John Davey, Vice President, Marketing Technology, Mount Sinai Health System
• Jeff Larson, President, Mediassociates

Today, patients research healthcare decisions online - first with simple health questions and then moving on to selecting a provider. Reviews, reputation and research affect their impressions of your health system and their decision whether to take that next step with your healthcare system. And this trend isn't slowing down. Hear how Concentra uses its online presences to set the tone for patient growth, patient retention and patient expectations. 

• Bryan Oram, AVP, Strategic Healthcare, Podium
• Jay Kinzel, Senior Director of Business Analytics, Concentra

Learn the art and science of plain language, why it matters and how to overcome the stigma of “dumbing it down."

• Rebecca Sims, VP, Talent & Acquisition, WriterGirl & Associates

Save Money. Live Better. That has always been the motto of the world’s largest retailer, but most recently they are taking the motto to heart with a focus on changing how customers go about managing their health. With an emphasis on providing personalized, affordable and accessible healthcare to all, Walmart has successfully launched their Wellness Wednesday content solution and Wellness Hub to help consumers better manage all their health and wellness needs in one place. Attend this session to learn how Walmart has become a trusted resource for their shoppers, Associates and the healthcare community. Hear from two leaders of Walmart’s Wellness and Health initiatives on their journey to change healthcare as well as the landscape of healthcare marketing and consumerism and the results they have achieved.

• Diana Jones, CEO, Petrastella Communications
• Karissa Price-Rico, Vice President of Marketing, Food, Consumables, and Health and Wellness, Walmart
• Emilie Ansel, CEO, Private Health News

Today, more than 46 million adults in the U.S. are age 65+; by 2050, that number is expected to grow to almost 90 million; by 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 or older. But despite how we group them, the age 65+ crowd is not monolithic. They range from spry and health-focused to suffering deep chronic conditions; from tech-savvy to tech-phobic; from deeply engaged to frighteningly indifferent. Whether you work in a hospital or a health plan, learn how to start thinking about this age group differently, developing multi-faceted marketing and communications plans that appropriately address their health needs, communication expectations, and lifestyle realities.

• Linda Watts, Director of Content Strategy, Five Star Senior Living

It's inevitable. You either advance past your internal team's expertise, or you outgrow your agency's capabilities. It's not easy to identify this pivotal point, and one wrong or delayed choice may stymie growth. Houston Methodist recently committed to finding a long-term strategic partner and designed a novel approach to make sure they found the best fit. Examine where effective searches start, what an ideal partner looks like, and how to find your perfect agency. 

• Jeff Duncan, Digital Marketing Manager, Houston Methodist
• Jeremy Mathis, Account Partner, Fathom

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Ever feel like you’re buried in projects based on never-ending internal requests, or that technology drives your choices, or worse – the loudest voice in the organization dictates your priorities? In this session, learn how Sharp HealthCare transformed their digital work from a project management approach that often resulted in lackluster features – to a customer-first, product management discipline where their roadmaps are aligned with creating delightful experiences that customers actually need. Discover how, in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), the digital team plans, manages and leads the organization.

• Mandy Circuit, Manager, Digital Product Strategy, Sharp Healthcare
• Vidya Dinamani, Partner, Product Rebels

Today, consumers expect nothing less than experiences that mirror Amazon or Carvana. These sleek, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate digital experiences cater to a variety of audiences - all under one roof.

In this session, Keck Medicine of USC and Modea will share the steps they took to build a search-focused AMC website that seamlessly caters to a complex audience base. Learn how Keck is applying SEO best practices and out-of-industry thinking to differentiate their organization from local and national competition.

• Bhavna Patel , Director of Digital Marketing, Keck Medicine of USC
• Bryce Cannon, President, Modea

Healthcare is constantly evolving, but the change spurred by COVID was exceptional. The ability to quickly provide guidance on rapidly changing information became critically important. Learn how Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System leveraged CRM to provide consistent, meaningful communications, positioning the hospital as a trusted source of reliable information. Discover how to transition from crisis communications to nurturing campaigns that drive awareness and utilization of key service lines, ensuring patients continue to safely access care.

• Janice Lamy, System Vice President of Marketing, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System
• Cheryl Hodgson, Senior Account Director, LionShare, Inc.

Learn how to harness the power of TikTok advertising, influencer marketing, Location-Based Advertising (LBA) and other underutilized digital tactics to drive growth. Combine these tactics to build patient volumes, recruit staff and demonstrate ROI. 

In this session, we'll discuss how to:

• Hone microtargeting strategies to reach and motivate elusive audiences
• Advertise on TikTok to promote services, recruit staff, and engage health care consumers across demographics
• Use Influencer Marketing to attract new patients and build trust among your segmented audiences
• Leverage LBA, like geofencing and Google My Business (GMB), to drive traffic and increase patient volumes
• Hear from leaders at ChristianaCare, Community Care Plan, Nestlé Health Science, The DAISY Foundation and MOTION PT.

• Craig Fairfield, Managing Director, Wax Custom Communications
• Amanda Herriman, Marketing Manager, Wax Custom Communications

Charged with leading the transformation of communications to reignite the brand, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) adopted a social media strategy that has skyrocketed its engagement across social media platforms, particularly on Facebook. Over the past few years, TGH has produced social content that resulted in a nearly 300% increase in engagement and at exponentially higher engagement levels than regional and national competitors. During this presentation, hear the story of TGH’s strategy evolution and see effective content marketing examples that engage the consumer and generate leads.

• Taylor Howard, Digital Marketing Coordinator, Tampa General Hospital
• Alison Pondo, Marketing Manager, Tampa General Hospital

When imagining content for your website, it is crucial to think beyond the normal cycle of draft, enter and publish. In this session, examine the content experience exercises and documentation around content marketing and governance that helped Renown Health establish a strong framework before creating a new structure for their website. Hear how these efforts involved analysis of thousands of content pages and supporting documents to create a comprehensive sitemap that broke down business objectives and goal targeting in relation to content.

• Lyndsey West, Communications Business Partner,, Renown Health
• Wolfgang Gruener, Lead Digital Content Strategist, Americaneagle.com
• Maggie Burke, Senior Project Manager, Americaneagle.com

For a long time, the location web pages on the OSU website were ... just bad. Learn about a redesign project that highlighted the relationship between buildings and clinics, optimized locations so they could be found in Google's local pack – allowing users to get the information they need without even visiting the site – all while making content maintenance easier.   

• Max Elsass, Senior Digital Optimization Specialist, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
• Jessica Wojtasek, User Experience Designer, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

About a year ago, Google launched a beta version of the Google Question Hub (https://questionhub.withgoogle.com/intl/en_US/), a new tool that allows content creators to help Google get people better answers to their questions. Mount Sinai Health System’s preliminary work with this tool demonstrates it can derive key insights and drive traffic. Join this session to learn more about its capabilities and how to use this tool.

• Tiffanie Green, Communications and Marketing Associate, Mount Sinai Health System
• David Schwab, Communications Manager/Writer, Mount Sinai Health System

Healthcare was forced to condense years of digital innovation into 2020. This transformation allowed organizations to respond to immediate needs but did not prepare them for patients’ elevated digital expectations. Organizations like Providence now must focus on meeting consumer expectations at every stage of their journey. Hear why one of the best ways to acquire new patients and keep them coming back is to meet every search with a correct answer.

• Kevin Madden, AVP, Providence Health
• Carrie Liken, Head of Industry, Healthcare, Yext

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Join us for lunch and robust conversation with your colleagues. At today's luncheon, you can choose a table with a topic of interest to you (from more than 40 options) or a table with no pre-defined discussion topic. The decision is yours! 

Join us to recognize the 2021 recipient of with the induction of theJohn A. Eudes Award for Vision & Excellence. This award is given in memory of John Eudes, Co-Founder of Greystone.Net and the class of 2021 of the Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame. 

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Break in the exhibit hall. Join the HCIC sponsors and exhibitors for insightful information, coffee, drinks and snacks!

Planning successful digital marketing programs can be overwhelming because of the all-encompassing nature of today’s digital environment combined with the growing complexity of modern healthcare organizations. This complexity drives the criticality of planning, now more than ever. Join this session to hear the Siteman approach to updating the web experience, examine core challenges and pick up key lessons learned along the way.

• Ed Morrissey, Partner and Chief Creative Officer, Integrity Web Consulting
• Dustin Horn, Associate Director of Digital Marketing and Communications, Siteman Cancer Center

Healthcare organizations are leveraging technology to provide better solutions to consumers and increase efficiencies for their practices. But some consumers can get left behind, including those in rural communities and seniors. Hear how Covenant Health rolled out Covid-focused solutions and vaccine programs for rural consumers and older patients. Benefit from their lessons learned and learn best practices. 

• Mandy Halford MD, Vice President, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Covenant Health
• Arun Mohan MD, CEO and Co-Founder, Radix Health

To rebound from mandatory shutdowns in 2020, American Health Imaging (AHI), part of US Radiology, had to address consumer fears and reach patients who might be delaying medical imaging. Hear how AHI pivoted its digital marketing strategy to drive patient volumes across ~35 outpatient locations and how US Radiology later leveraged the learnings across additional outpatient imaging brands. The results of the digital marketing strategy — including 2,000+ total conversions — demonstrated an effective approach to quickly reaching more patients. This session outlines key success factors, including targeting, messaging and designing strategies to optimize conversion rates and lower cost per lead.

• Melissa Weston, Vice President, Marketing, US Radiology Specialists
• Eric Silberman, President and CEO, True North Custom

Explore the strategy, architecture, content, KPIs and results of a pioneering online community for adult children of patients with dementia. Understand the impact of moderated interactions on service delivery, patient and caregiver relationships, practice growth and brand awareness or advocacy generated by a vibrant Facebook Group. Unpack the cadence, the comments and the content driving community dynamics and how they bond community members to the Mount Sinai Health System.

• Danny Flamberg, Vice President, Strategy, LiveWorld
• Chloe Politis, Director of Digital and Social Media, Mount Sinai Health System

Priorities, business plans, data — you ask for all of them but don’t always get them. Nevertheless, you determine to develop a content strategy. You fill it out with as much as you know, determine priorities, strategize, and list the tactics. Where did you end up? Check out a year in the life of a content strategy at the University of Utah Health and witness the autopsy: high performing, low performing and the summary of a life.

• Jen Brass Jenkins, Content Manager, University of Utah Health

Join us to hear why the answer is a resounding “No!” Learn how, more than ever, branding is essential to differentiating your digital patient experience - and how you can build the right business case for branding within your own healthcare organization. Learn about a framework for aligning marketing efforts to the purchase journey, feeding the top of the funnel and converting throughout. And hear how to align your measurement goals with the role and purpose of each tactic.

• Helen Lauen, Director of Marketing, Proliance Surgeons
• Dan Greenwald, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, White Rhino

Cookie-blocking technology is here to stay, rapidly expanding and directly impacting healthcare marketers’ ability to target, attribute and measure across multi-channel campaigns to physicians and patients. With cookie monsters gobbling up identification and targeting capabilities that support precision marketing efforts, this technical session will frame the issues alongside solution trends to provide hospital marketing teams the information necessary to continue to achieve relevant engagement and ROI-driving results.  

• Frank Lin, Chief Technology Officer, DMD Marketing Corporation

Making sure your website is secure is vitally important to protecting content and data and assuring that your users have the safest experience possible. What was deemed secure 20 years ago is nowhere near what is needed in 2021. As reliance on the internet for daily healthcare transactions has grown and evolved, the need for increasingly higher levels of protection has risen. In this session, learn how to guide and influence key areas of website security. Understand the vital steps needed to provide a safe and secure website environment. From the basic, yet important need for CMS-level personal computer security to data storage and hosting security, gain valuable insights that your organization can start using immediately. Circle this as a must-see session because it’s not just your content or website at risk, your reputation and brand are at stake too.

• Sujal Raju, President, Enqbator

With Instagram’s ever-changing algorithms, standing out as a thought leader is becoming more difficult. It’s easy to get caught up in your feed’s aesthetic, when really, your impact is more important. How can you take a stance or tell a story without overstepping? Normalizing the imperfect and celebrating life’s “ordinary” moments might be your best strategy. Don’t just go for the most “likes.” Instead, learn to create engaging, sharable content that resonates with your audience.

• Shaylyn Brady, Digital Marketing Specialist, Health Alliance Plan, Health Alliance Plan
• Suzanna Smentowski, Marketing and Digital Content Writer, Henry Ford Health System

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Building on Tuesday’s opening keynote presentation, we are all eager for a future of care that is more personalized, more effective and more human. Over the last decade, most health systems have rightly made innovation a key operational objective, and while some are (thankfully) succeeding, many are still finding it difficult to achieve meaningful results, especially in the face of significant and growing margin pressure. Contrary to popular belief, innovation is actually getting harder in nearly every industry. Traditional solutions no longer work, and it is important to understand why. How can health systems simultaneously improve their core operations while investing to build what needs to come next? What are the barriers that get in the way of real innovation and how can they be overcome? In this nuts-and-bolts keynote presentation from Elliott Parker, the Chief Executive Officer of High Alpha Innovation, learn five things your organization can do in the next 100 days to change your innovation trajectory and begin achieving tangible results.  

• Elliott Parker, Chief Executive Officer, High Alpha Innovation

Join us at the Wednesday evenings reception with appetizers, cocktails and networking with colleagues, sponsors and exhibitors. 

Breakfast on Thursday morning before the general session begins.

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The expectations of today's workforce have changed. How you manage, recruit and engage must change too. That means breaking old rules, choosing the essential over the expected and rethinking just about everything. In this keynote, international keynote speaker and Mindset Digital Chief Executive Officer Debra Jasper joins forces with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Chief Marketing Officer Lori Turner to cover how to:

• Leverage more agile environments to roll out new programs, processes and plans at warp speed — even with a more remote workforce.
• Fully optimize your online presence — from your website to the online profiles of your top executives, recruiters and physicians (now, more than ever, people are connecting virtually).
• Use gamification, leaderboards and simple rewards (think water bottles and T-Shirts) to transform how you engage hybrid teams and produce measurable results.

Don’t miss this fast-paced session on how to embrace — and showcase — new approaches that will elevate your outreach, raise productivity and help you stand out from the crowd.

• Lori Turner, Chief Marketing Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
• Debra Jasper, CEO/Founder, Digital Mindset

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Break in the exhibit hall. Join the HCIC sponsors and exhibitors for insightful information, coffee, drinks and snacks!

More than ever, patients are making their healthcare appointments online—up to 64%, according to Accenture. And what’s more, 77% of patients are doing online research before booking an appointment. How is your health system getting in front of them? How are they driving patients to your scheduling portals? It’s vital to find something easy to implement, easy to adjust, and easy to determine your ROI. Hear from Raymond Wu how he utilizes third-party validation sites to increase traffic to their digital front door.

• Raymond Wu, Executive Marketing Director - Northern Region Hospitals, Hackensack Meridian Health
• Heidi Schulte, Vice President, Strategy Hospital Solutions, Doximity

With growing consumer preference for online scheduling, SCL Health found themselves at a crossroads with their current find-a-provider experience. The solutions they had in place were no longer meeting expectations and provided little insight into consumer behaviors and the impact on online conversion rates. Learn how SCL Health created a modern, patient-centered provider search experience that boosted web traffic and provided the analytics needed to stay efficient, agile and innovative.

• Julie Lindsay, Director, Digital Services, SCL Health
• Scott Andrews, General Manager, Health Systems, Kyruus

Historical challenges with telehealth adoption came to a critical intersection with the need to provide patient care during the pandemic. Hear how Nemours Children’s Health aligned its marketing, clinical operations and Center for Health Delivery Innovation teams to develop a cross-functional approach. Discover how using a hybrid of contact center, marketing automation, content, and internal communications, Nemours brought telehealth services to scale across all specialties within the multi-state system, while increasing access, use and patient satisfaction. Leave this session with a better understanding of how to deliver a personalized approach to meeting family needs during critical times.

• Patrick Barth MD, Enterprise Medical Director, Telehealth Specialty Care, Nemours Children's Health
• Rachel Donovan, Managing Director, Enterprise Marketing Strategy, Nemours Children's Health

You no longer have control over your brand - your patients do. Consumers now have more control of their own healthcare than ever. They’re researching options and making decisions based on feedback from other patients. This feedback is found anywhere and everywhere - whether you ask for it or not. And that’s impacting your growth. In this session, industry experts will share what healthcare can learn from leading consumer brands to get found online and improve the consumer experience journey.

• Adeline Ashley, Director, Digital Initiatives Strategy, ProMedica
• Annie Haarmann, Head of Strategy & Consulting, Healthcare & LIfe Sciences, Reputation.com
• Celine Patterson, Healthcare Strategy and Consulting Manager, Reputation.com

As podcasts have become a ubiquitous marketing tool, the question now is how to maximize their impact. This session will provide strategies for using and repurposing your audio content across various marketing communications platforms such as your website, blog, social media, newsletters, publications, physician relations initiatives, and more. Plus, we'll uncover a smart SEO tactic and provide a brief overview of analytics and how to measure engagement.

• Bill Klaproth, Director of Marketing and Pod Talk Host, DoctorPodcasting, RadioMD

Creating a content strategy often intimidates even the most seasoned digital marketers. Rarely are discussions of content strategy grounded in actual step-by-step, on-the-ground tactics. This session takes an abstract concept and breaks it down into manageable tactics and steps by sharing how Baptist Health has done just this.

• Jennifer Komis, Content Strategy Manager , Baptist Health System
• Amberly Lutsch, Web Content Specialist II, Baptist Health System

Google and your website are often the first places consumers go for information, and healthcare organizations must present a positive digital presence. Rather than let the pandemic stall their digital transformation, learn how Cameron leveraged their community’s newfound respect to strengthen their digital strategy. This session explores how public relations and digital marketing work together to sway perceptions. Hear case studies and see a blueprint for improving local search visibility and building a positive digital reputation.

• Haley Jepson, Marketing and Communications Manager, Cameron Memorial Community Hospital
• Alex Membrillo, Chief Executive Officer, Cardinal Digital Marketing

By starting with a robust user experience insights study, Valley Children’s Healthcare was able to keep physicians happy and improve web user experiences. A greatly enhanced Find a Doctor functionality allowed physicians to showcase clinical expertise and gain community awareness. See how Valley Children’s combined both hospital and physician groups in the results to create a stronger user experience for parents seeking expert pediatric care and how doing so elevated Valley’s presence as a comprehensive health system.

• Betsey Heidrick, M.A., Interactive Content Specialist, Valley Children's Healthcare
• Sara Watson, Account Director, MERGE

When you get that dreaded cancer diagnosis, you try to find a doctor who can help. Imagine the frustration when you can’t find one. Hear a very personal journey and an analysis of some of the best and worst in provider directories, informed both by a scary diagnosis and being a judge in the “Best Doctor Directory” category in the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. Spoiler alert: There’s still a lot of work to do!

• Neal Linkon, Retired Former Director of Marketing Operations, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin

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eHealthcare Leadership Awards recognize the best websites and digital communications of healthcare organizations, including hospitals, health systems, physician groups, health plans, online health companies, pharmaceutical and medical equipment firms, agencies/suppliers and business improvement applications.

• Jane Weber Brubaker, Award Chair, eHealthcare Leadership Awards, Executive Editor, Plain-English Health Care
• Emilie Ansel, CEO, Private Health News
• Ben Dillon, Chief Strategy Officer, Geonetric

See you next year in Miami, FL!