On Wednesday July 1 my firm Bellatrix Group hosted our first ever virtual panel, part of a three part series we are hosting on Health + Human Connectedness We were thrilled to have four senior executives (Kyana Brathwaite, Founder of KB CALS, Ana Lopez, Oracle Sales Leader and President/Founder EVA Global Services, Mike Gadsby, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at O3 and Brendan Gallagher, Chief Connected Health Officer at Publicis Health) with loads of insights and experience join us and share their perspectives on the work that needs to be done in healthcare to create a healthcare continuum that takes the whole person, and the whole consumer journey, into consideration.

It was amazing and inspiring to hear the consistency of shared beliefs, pain points, and wishes for the future from across our panel of two white men, one black woman, and one Latina. The themes they shared were all so similar, and resonated deeply with what we’ve been hearing consumers and providers tell us for the last two and a half years. Things like:

• We need to put the human aspect back into health
• Consumers need to be better educated about their health, which requires greater transparency from the industry as a whole
• Healthcare must solve for data interoperability, and use the rich data it has about its members to improve health

We also spent time talking about the veil that has been lifted on health inequities in our country in the post-COVID era, and about the dichotomy between predominantly white teams creating solutions for BIPOC. Brendan defined one of our favorite phrases when he said, “I’m amazed how open my eyes have become; I was nowhere near doing enough and being enough to my black colleagues and friends. We’re seeing people structurally start to change things. Younger CEOs are breaking down legacy barriers of “corporate gravity” that unseen force that keeps things working the way they always work and being able to openly say we are doing something different from now on.”

No matter what the topic though, our panelists seemed to agree that at the root of all solutions — and many of our current problems — lies data. Access to it, responsible and human-focused usage of it, and delivery of it in meaningful and trustworthy ways to those that can harness it for good. Ana put it so perfectly and succinctly when she said, “The survivors are going to be those that are data-driven.”

You can check out the entire webinar on our YouTube channel.