WTF – What’s the Fix?
By HealthSparq, Special for USABR
This June, health care industry disrupters and everyday people will join together to kick the hell out of health care at the first-ever What’s The Fix? Conference. This one-of-a-kind conference is laser focused on changing the tough, cold and inefficient health care system we are stuck in today by featuring everyday people with big stories about how they turned their “WTF” health care moments into inspiration, action and solutions.
Free and accessible to all via livestream, What’s the Fix? will force the “what’s wrong in health care” conversation forward with inspiring, real-life stories from people making change despite the system, not because of it.
WHEN: June 14, 2017
WHERE: Broadcasted live across the nation through Brandlive at The Cambia Grove, with no entrance fee for any attendee
WHY: When you talk to health plans, doctors and especially patients, there’s no lack of stress and frustration with our health care industry. This conference provides an opportunity learn how people have control of their health care experience, and inspire real change by showing those with the power how people outside the system are creating lasting change.
WHO SPEAKS: The speakers at What’s The Fix? are not CEOs, VPs or scholars; they’re everyday people who have turned often horrible health situations into something big and impactful, with the power to change the health care industry and make it better for all people.
This year’s speaker lineup includes:
- Morgan Gleason: a college student, who at age 15 started using social media to shine a light on how extended hospital stays can hurt a patient’s ability to heal. She now uses her experiences to teach other patients to feel empowered and speak up for themselves and others.
- Dana Lewis: a type 1 diabetic, who not only built her own artificial pancreas, but built it open source (known as “OpenAPS“), so that anyone can build one.
- Beth Lambert: the founder and executive director of Epidemic Answers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the epidemic of chronic illness affecting our youth and helping parents find healing solutions.
- Tami Rich: a mother who dove head-first into the health care industry after experiencing the worst that the health care system has to offer while treating her son’s congenital heart defect. Tami is now fighting back by consulting health care organizations on quality and family engagement standards.
More speakers to be announced at a later date.
WHO ATTENDS: This conference is for everyone who is interested in fixing health care — from people who are fed up with the health care system who don’t think they have the power to change things, to people who are embedded deep in the industry and can make concrete changes. Anyone from patients and caregivers, to doctors, hospitals, and health plan employees are encouraged to attend and make their own commitments to fix the system.
HOW TO ENGAGE: Use the conference hashtag #WTFix to engage during the event. Before the event, share your stories using the #WhatTheHealthCare hashtag, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or join the community on Facebook.
REGISTER: Register to participate in the Brandlive livestream at: whatsthefix.info
MORE DETAILS:
Earlier this year, HealthSparq issued a call to action and a promise: give us your frustrating, annoying, scary and crazy health care moments via the #WhatTheHealthCare hashtag, and we’ll do everything in our power to make sure the rest of the health care world hears you. This conference is the next step in the #WhatTheHealthCare efforts – we’ve seen and heard the stories, we are now going to use them to make change.
“Health care isn’t fun to navigate. It feels ineffective and inefficient for anyone and everyone involved. It’s not focused on the people that truly need it – but that’s not news to anyone,” said Chief Marketing Officer Burt Rosen. “With What’s the Fix? we’re elevating the stories of those who have taken it upon themselves to help fix the mess. These people are heroes, and we know that by connecting them with those who have the power to truly change health care, there is an opportunity to make a real difference.”
“When our son Jameson was diagnosed at four days old with complex congenital cardiac defects, in a heartbeat, our world turned upside-down,” says conference speaker, family advocate, medical mom and ePatient Tami Rich. “Armed with excellent advice from his cardiologist, we set out to raise him with health competence and confidence: Teach him to become his own best advocate, so that one day, he could care for himself to the best of his abilities. I look forward to connecting with other like-minded change agents at What’s The Fix?. I’m most excited to see what happens when we join forces, align our values-driven missions and focus together on fixing what’s broken in health care.”
Follow along and share your perspectives on What’s the Fix? with the hashtag #WTFix.
About HealthSparq
At HealthSparq, we help people to make smarter health care choices by partnering with health plans to provide members with cost and quality information about doctors, hospitals and medical services, based on their individual benefits. We put people at the core of everything we do by conducting continuous usability testing, eliciting consumer feedback to enhance product development, hosting industry panels featuring everyday people, and bringing human stories to the forefront through our #WhatTheHealthCare campaign. Using these insights, we create solutions to help people understand and navigate the health care system better than ever before.
Growing since our founding in 2008 from our home in Portland, Oregon, we now serve more than 70 health plans and their 72 million members nationwide. Interested in helping us kick the hell out of health care? Contact us at HealthSparq.com or tweet us @HealthSparq.
SOURCE HealthSparq
