Spring is here! In San Francisco, the sun is shining, there are blooming magnolia trees and daffodils everywhere, and seemingly as much energy for new things as there is pollen floating in the air. We’re celebrating new partnerships, launches, and funding announcements in our client orbit this month — as well as intriguing new client leads on the way for the summer.
We’re also planting the seeds of new ideas! Our freshly launched LinkedIn live series, Remaking Medicine, kicked off this spring with guest Dylan Mortimer, a double lung transplant recipient, survivor of cystic fibrosis, and celebrated artist talking about viewing his hospital rooms as “studio space” for periods of artistic residency. Listen here, follow Emily F. Peters to watch new episodes, and nominate your favorite creative healthcare changemaker for a future episode by emailing amber@uncommonbold.com.
Plus, be sure to read to the end of this newsletter to see new scientific guidelines for building trust in our healthcare systems.
Emily F. Peters
CEO @UncommonBold, Publisher @ProcedurePress
Brand Strategy in Action
- Congratulations to Kyna Fong, CEO of Elation Health, for her acceptance into Fast Company’s Executive Board and her first column on physicians and AI! Kyna also joined industry leaders at ViVE ‘24 on a panel talking about best practices for AI to improve the care experience for physicians and their patients.
Elation Health announced their partnership with Surescripts to provide transparency on medication costs at the point of care in real time in January. Read the feature story from Fierce Healthcare.
“Given that so many medications have been in a shortage situation, it’s nice to have real-time views regarding costs of the alternatives so we can get the medications sorted out for patients when they’re in the office for their visits or when they are calling in, without having to play cat and mouse with the pharmacy.”
— Dr. Elena Christofides, an Elation EHR customer in Columbus, Ohio, said- We worked with the founders of Anatomy Financial in 2023 to give their fintech + healthtech brand the best possible foundation for launch. In February, they announced a successful funding round and the official debut of their platform. We love seeing their beautiful work in action! Be sure to follow their progress on LinkedIn.
Congratulations to Osmind co-founder and CEO, Lucia Huang, for her profile in the San Francisco Business Times! Lucia dives into her mission to reshape mental health care, the value of the Y Combinator program, and surfing as a practice in positivity and patience.
Our team has been working closely with Intrepid Ascent to guide Anthem Blue Cross of California through in-depth community research, a brand workshop, and fresh engagement strategy related to new Medicaid programs for California’s most vulnerable residents.
Manifest MedEx successfully launched their no-cost California ADT Network in January. The first-of-its-kind HIE program funnels the secure and free exchange of ADT data alerts into a single feed between care teams and eligible Data Exchange Framework (DxF) participants, helping to meet compliance requirements by the DxF and helping to close the health equity gap by making it accessible and affordable to participate. Read about the launch in Healthcare Innovation.
“Providers have been asking for this type of real-time health data for decades to help physicians provide better and more efficient care for their patients. This is a great opportunity for California to advance health data sharing to benefit all patients and communities.”
— William Barcellona, Executive VP of Government Affairs, America’s Physician GroupsThe SCAN Foundation and Dandelion Health announced their partnership last quarter, advancing equitable healthcare by expanding algorithm validation to include social determinants of health (SDOH) of older adults. Read about their vision in HIT Consultant.
CHG Healthcare and Nomi Health announced their work together in March, marking a major advancement in meeting the growing need for medical support in underserved communities throughout the United States. Learn more about their partnership here.
”Siloed care is one of the largest challenges facing at-risk populations. This partnership allows providers to spend time delivering care resulting in improved clinical outcomes and health plan performance.”
— Sara Ratner, President of Integrated and Government Programs, Nomi Health
News from the Uncommon Bold Universe
Welcome to graphic designer, Jenni Jelsing! Jenni joined our team in March and has been impressing clients and our team with her talents.
“Her work is excellent, she’s so responsive and fast. I don’t always give specific or clear design direction but she just seems to ‘get it.’ That’s invaluable.”Congratulations to Ashley Greer for her promotion to Communications Director at Uncommon Bold. A key part of our team for more than eight years, Ashley is a joy as a colleague and friend and “the queen of bylines.”
More congratulations are in order for Amber Cooley, project manager and brand researcher reaching five years, and Kaitlin Rebella, senior communications manager, for celebrating two years with our crew!
Our first Ideas page of the year was a compilation of creative inspiration ranging from Claudia Biçen’s beautiful portrait project: Thoughts in Passing in which she interviewed Bay Area hospice patients to discover what it means to live a purposeful life to a fun homegrown mom & daughter book club sparking conversation through books from the 1980s and today. Check out Mind Exploration to see more ideas.
The SF Standard recently celebrated the street where we have our headquarters in San Francisco! See for yourself why “one of SF’s most diverse neighborhoods is on the rise” and come out for a Laotian lunch or a boba tea with us anytime.
Artists Remaking Medicine
Emily was invited to guest lecture for two unique graduate programs this month, reinforcing the power of creativity in healthcare. Thank you to Roshni Shah, MSN, with DePaul University’s Masters in Nursing program, and Yolanda Pilar Cristina Zaragoza, with the California Academy of Art’s Masters in Interaction Design program, and their amazing students.
Emily has also accepted a position on the advisory board for the National Kidney Foundation’s annual Author’s Luncheon. She will be leading the silent auction, if you would like to contribute to the auction reach out to hello@uncommonbold.com.
Emily joined a group of physicians, ethicists, philosophers, theologians, and vocational artists, including Artist’s Remaking Medicine contributor, Dr. Sydelle Ross, who spent a week exploring the theme of “Imagination and Flow” at the Medicine & Art of Ethics Colloquium produced by the Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, at the calming Laity Lodge in Texas.
Let’s connect! If you, or someone you know, are interested in us hosting a lunchtime chat, virtual book club, or creative workshop on this topic, we are happy to curate a session. Reach out to claudia@uncommonbold.com.
What We’re Reading
How to Tackle Truth Decay — The Atlantic In healthcare, it is essential that we all work on rebuilding the badly eroded trust in our systems. A life-saving vaccine is worthless if a patient believes it is risky and declines taking it. A phone call offering housing support to Medicaid patients fails if the recipient believes it to be a scam. A physician won’t adopt a new AI tool to reduce administrative burden if it isn’t trustworthy. MIT professor and director of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication Deb Roy recently wrote on the phenomena of “Truth Decay,” the erosion of trust in experts and institutions, which has contributed to overflowing polarization and skepticism in our society. Roy shares examples of how “everyday people” are self-mediating the influx of misleading information and explores how leaders and organizations can step up to reverse the flow of truth decay. Several tactics are outlined in the article that align closely with Uncommon Bold’s approach to building brands and healthcare engagement, including involving established community leaders, amplifying expert voices, and investing in participatory “civilian deliberation” that closely resembles user-centered design listening practices. It’s a smart take and energized our team to continue growing our work on trust-building! Here’s the article from The Atlantic (gifted link).
