Experience Strategy Podcast: How to Create a Seamless Patient Experience
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Want to deliver a more seamless patient experience but are challenged by organizational silos? In this episode, you’ll learn how to get the research, partnerships, and innovation processes you need, so you can compete more effectively.
We are joined by Tiffany Mura, the Strategic Lead, Healthcare for Stone Mantel where she focuses on growing the practice and helping healthcare clients create transformational experiences for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. With almost 20 years’ experience across all key healthcare sectors - from life sciences to health insurance to digital/non-traditional - Tiffany brings a cross-industry perspective and deep knowledge of the space to help clients tackle the most challenging problems facing healthcare today. She has worked on both the agency and the client side, giving her a first-hand understanding of the internal corporate challenges clients face when trying to drive innovation and effect transformative change.
Tiffany shares emerging trends, resources, and game-changing frameworks for succeeding in the competitive Healthcare industry.
Voiceover: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast, where we talk to customers and experts about how to create products and services that feel like time well spent. And now here are your hosts, experienced nerds, uh strategists, Dave Norton and Aransas Savas.
Aransas: Welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast. I'm your host, Aransas Savas.
Dave: And I'm Dave Norton. And today we're bringing it close to home as we invite the newest member of our team, Tiffany Mura, onto the show. So Tiffany has joined us as the strategic lead of healthcare for Stone Mantle, where Dave and I work, and with us. She's focusing on growing our practice and helping healthcare clients really create transformational experiences for patients, for caregivers, and for healthcare professionals.
She's had almost 20 years of [00:01:00] experience across all key healthcare sectors, from life sciences to health insurance, to digital and non-traditional. She brings so much deep cross-industry perspective and knowledge of the space to help our clients really tackle the most challenging problems that face healthcare today.
So, We are thrilled to invite her here today because in this conversation she's gonna share with all of us how she sees the future of healthcare. She's also gonna tell us a little bit about how she sees the healthcare collaborative really making an impact for the companies that participate. If you don't know anything about our collaboratives program, Stay tuned.
You'll hear lots about healthcare today, and if you listen to our prior episode, you can hear more about all of the focus areas for 2023 and 2024. Tiffany, [00:02:00] thank you for being here. Welcome to Stone Mantle and welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast.
Tiffany: Thank you so Much. I'm so excited to be here. It's just been a great experience thus far.
Love the team members and really excited about the work that we're doing here.
Aransas: So before we get into what you're doing next, tell us a little bit more about where you've been and what brought you to this point in your career.
Tiffany: Absolutely. So I was, I was a kid who grew up wanting to be a doctor and then I took biology and realized that I want nothing to do with blood and, but I always liked the science piece of it, and that's kind of how I ended up in the healthcare industry is I started to work on the agency space.
And gravitated towards a boss who was in the healthcare industry, uh, because I thought he was really skilled and talented and just fell in love with the science piece of it. And I've always really nerded out on that. But, um, really started doing experience strategy before. Experience strategy was a thing.
I remember there was [00:03:00] one project I worked on early on in my career that highlighted how important experience is, and it was for a launch of a schizophrenia drug. And we created a program for our convention to allow doctors to walk through and see what it was like for family members dealing with someone who they loved who had schizophrenia.
And this was such an eye opening experience for the doctors. And really when we talked to 'em afterwards, they said that it really changed how they approached the families and the patients, and even how they were thinking about the disease. And it, it just got me really excited about how much more could be done to improve any, any aspect of the healthcare experience and what experience strategy could do to provide this, this fuller picture of the person as a human, not just as a patient.
So that's, that's how I got my early earliest start in the space.
Aransas: So incredible. And I tell people all the time that one of my favorite things about being an experienced strategist is that, [00:04:00] Intrinsically, we care about human beings and we see our customers and our colleagues as human beings, and so I get to be surrounded by people who are passionate about people and serving people impactfully.
So absolutely. This is a new role for you. What made you wanna come over to Stone Mantle?
Tiffany: Well, I, like I said, I'm very passionately committed to, to this experience strategy space, but having known the folks at Stone Mantle by being part of the collaboratives last year, I was really excited about the work that was being done over here and the impact that it was having.
And really the fact that it's so cutting edge because I think experience strategy really is the key of the future. We have all the, the tools and technology, it's putting them together in a meaningful way that's going to be critical. So I was excited to come work with a super smart group and continue to grow the [00:05:00] healthcare practice as well as the enrollment and the collaboratives.
I love that.
Aransas: And what, what is your goal more specifically for your time at Stone Mantle?
Tiffany: You know, I think right now the US healthcare system is really in a crisis spot, unfortunately. And you know, I think during covid we proved that, that as an industry we can fix the hairiest problems we've got. I mean, if you know, you remember, we pivoted to telehealth pretty much overnight.
You know, something that would've taken five years during a normal time, and we got three vaccines to market within one year. So the capability of of creating innovation is there and creating innovative patient experience is there. But how do we, how do we make that happen faster? How do we keep some of that momentum going without, um, such a, a crisis as a pandemic, but yet there is a, a bigger crisis that that is looming out there with the, you know, physician burnout with the greater patient acuity from care.[00:06:00]
My goal is to really, you know, continue to leverage the innovative thinking and experience strategy to try to figure out how we more quickly solve these problems by getting folks on the same page. I think that's one of the most brilliant aspects of the collaborative is that we can bring people together from across an organization and have them all thinking about experience strategy in a similar way.
So when they go back to maybe the more siloed. Groups they're working within, they can, they can spread that thinking around and still be creating good, seamless experiences despite some of the, the organizational, structural, uh, barriers that may be preventing it.
Aransas: I love that you bring that up. I'm often asked what the biggest issue is with experience, strategy, and organizations across the board, and my answer always is silos.
Yeah.
Dave: Yeah. You know, Tiffany, it is a really challenging time, uh, to be focused on healthcare. There's a lot that's [00:07:00] going on. Uh, you mentioned, um, doctor burnout, nurse burnout, just employees overall struggling. Um, there's also the financial issues that a lot of, um, healthcare systems are trying to deal with.
There are some new. Major players in the space that have been, we have been anticipating for some time, but, uh, are now starting to really show up and, uh, really start to take a chunk outta the marketplace. I'm thinking about Amazon's new pharmacy service. There's other services that are being offered out there.
How do we get. Are heads around where to start.
Tiffany: Yeah, that is, that is a big, big question. But, um, I think it starts by the clients really understanding, you know, what their unique problems are and, [00:08:00] um, you know, which of those factors are playing heaviest in, in their particular world. But I think that the beautiful piece about the collaboratives is we bring together folks from across.
Various industries, not just healthcare. And it really allows folks to draw from the best of the best and see where things are being done well in other industries and learn, learn from there and figure out, you know, how do I apply this to, to my, my challenges. So, you know, maybe, maybe they're not reinventing the wheel every time.
I think, you know, those are kind of the two keys, but you're right, there are a lot of challenges facing it. And I think the framework, tools, techniques allows you. Address all of these various challenges, um, in a, in a consistent manner, and also by being able to. Really apply similar thinking across your various groups as you, as you look at them.
But you know, you talk about employee experience and that's, you know, one of the ones that comes to mind first. I think that's such a critical reason that good experience strategies essential when you're developing a healthcare solution. Because [00:09:00] a lot of times when companies are developing patient facing solutions, they're forgetting that the, the doctors in that, in that mix as well.
And they really need to be thinking about, you know, Are they creating experience? That's, you know, also time well spent for the doctor, because if the patient's engaging but the doctor's not, it's not gonna be successful. Um, so that's, that's one aspect of it. But also when we think about employee experience, you know, what can we learn to help mitigate this burnout?
Um, so that we're not creating solutions that are good for patients, but not good for the, the doctor burnout situation. Yeah. Those that are ultimately unsustainable.
Aransas: Yeah,
Dave: I'm so up. Time spent.
Tiffany: Patients are bringing the expectations that they're of, of experience from their entire lives, not just what they're experiencing within healthcare. So I think the more the healthcare organizations can learn how they create value from, you know, perhaps other industries and other ways that, you know, people are experiencing that [00:10:00] value and applying that to healthcare is very critical.
Cause it salute back to your earlier point, I think that is also going to be a way that healthcare can compete against these nontraditional players like the Amazon Health or Cubans company or, um, you know, The fact that CVS and Walmart and Walgreens are trying to become primary care centers.
Aransas: So in this year's healthcare collaborative, you'll really be leading the decision making around what the topics are, the focus of the work itself.
Given the many conversations you've had with folks in the healthcare space over the last months and years, what do you believe is most important to tackle together in the year ahead?
Tiffany: I think it's creating that, um, that similar approach, um, to help combat some of the siloing in the industry, but also, um, really focusing on what those meaningful [00:11:00] experiences are and those transformative experiences are, you know, where patients and doctors are really going to engage with them and that it's really going to solve the problem.
And thinking about that very creatively, whether it be learning from other industry examples or thinking, you know, really applying that design thinking. Paradigm of looking outside the box of how could we do this differently to combat some of the many problems that they've listed. I mean, there are so many, but it's going to require that, that very big picture thinking to figure out what could we do differently to make that happen.
But then it's not just that. Big picture. It's also then saying, okay, how do we make that happen? Because one of the biggest challenges is always the regulatory environment within healthcare. So we want folks to walk away not only with an innovative concept that they have vetted and tested, you know, um, really deemed that it would be useful for their patients and physicians, but then start to strategize, you know, how do we make this happen?
Um, within the regulatory environment that we're, we're operating in. Cause [00:12:00] it's useless if they walk away with a concept that's never implementable.
Aransas: Indeed nothing is worse really than to put lots of money, time and energy and into something that you can't leverage
Tiffany: Yep. But I think, you know, we're really gonna operate it with a, how can we type of approach of, you know, really thinking creatively with within all of the constraints to make something that's really impactful.
Aransas: And for folks who aren't familiar with the collaboratives, as you talk about solving this problem through multiple lenses in the healthcare space, what types of companies do you feel like should participate in the healthcare collaborative?
Tiffany: Oh, absolutely. So it's interesting because I have worked on both the agency and the client side.
I did spend seven years in the life sciences industry and you know, Had I known about the collaboratives back then, I would've, I would've signed up immediately because I think [00:13:00] they, they are really trying to dial in the focus on patient centricity and, um, you know, creating meaningful experiences within a, an organizational structure that's still typically extremely siloed and divides up the experience across a number of departments.
So I think there's a huge opportunity there to bring folks in. Get them all playing from the same playbook, even if the organization's still sitting in silos. So I think there's, there's tremendous opportunity there. But I think anywhere across the healthcare system, whether it be, um, insurance companies, clinical research organizations that are trying to design more patient-centric clinical trials, you know, to respond to the FDA requirements, um, all the way through to digital and non-traditional healthcare companies that are trying to create these, you know, at home monitoring solutions or, or various digital tools to support healthcare.
Because like Dave said, there's, there's all, there's so many technol technology opportunities available right now, but figuring out, you know, how to incorporate those into an experiences time well spent or time well [00:14:00] invested and, and looking at the data we've got on what patients are willing to share because technology, um, experiences are only as you know, smart as you know, the data that is available to it and what's done with the data.
Aransas: That's exciting. And I know you are also doing quite a bit of project work in the healthcare space, so what kind of projects are you being asked to work on now?
Tiffany: Well, I have to say for all the, for all the stuff we're talking about with, um, physician burnout, I'm very excited that we're doing some medical student research right now.
And, um, I'm very heartened to see the, the passion and enthusiasm that, that these students are bringing to the industry because they, they're the ones who are gonna be taking care of us in our old age. So I'm glad to see that there's hope and optimism and I'm really excited to see, you know, what, what these.
Students go on to do. So we're doing a lot of research there, which is very exciting. You know, would love to, would love to do a lot more, um, you know, journey mapping and concepting work for solving the, all these various problems, [00:15:00] you know, whether it be, um, the physician burnout or the patient experience.
So, um, the experience, research, design, these solutions, you know, um, the co-creation sessions, any and all of that, I'm very much looking forward to.
Aransas: Exciting. And I think it's so rare for somebody to have your expertise and experience and to really be looking at individual journeys and, and bridging these silos.
You are able to do that in ways that most, most people just simply aren't because they've been either in a single aspect of the healthcare industry, um, or they've only operated either on client or agency side.
Tiffany: You know, I've been updating the 2023 health trends, so we'll soon be having an update on what's happening in the industry here, and also a version for European folks to look at so they can better understand what's going on in the US healthcare system right now.
And, um, you know, continuing to [00:16:00] collaborate with ASOS and folks on the 2024 general trends and the healthcare version of that as well.
Aransas: So can I put you on the spot to give us a little preview of any of the healthcare trends you're seeing?
Tiffany: Well, you know, the, the 2023 ones, you know, really focus a lot on things that we've already touched on, whether it be the, the physician burnout, um, the greater patient acuity and the increased costs, as well as really, you know, taking a good hard look at what's going on with ai because that is just an exploding space right now.
And I do think there's so much opportunity to, um, look at solutions to help offload some of the burden that physicians have on them to help decrease costs. And, you know, Improve at home patient care. So, um, that's another area that we'll be digging even deeper on and continuing to keep that updated as well as looking at, you know, some of the social issues and access to care.
You know, we've got such an issue in this country with primary care deserts. I mean, there's a general shortage, but you've got folks, um, That are suffering from it even more because [00:17:00] they live in rural areas and don't have access to care. And technology is another great, uh, solution there to create better experiences for them.
So those are kinda the areas that, that we're focusing on. And, um, more to come.
Dave: Tiffany, I’m just so excited, uh, for what this year's going to bring. And although I don't think that we're gonna be able to solve every problem in healthcare, that would be audacious, wouldn't it? I do think for the organizations that participate, this is going to be a very special year.
Tiffany: Likewise. I mean, I think what's so beautiful about the collaboratives, it's, it's such a perfect blend of education and frameworks as well as as practical development of solutions. And like, if I could say like, you know, sort of my blue sky vision, is that like the five companies that come, you know, participate in the healthcare collaborative or how many, you know, however many it is that, that they're the Forbes top five list of most innovative healthcare experiences come a year, year from now?
I mean, [00:18:00] that would be my, my ultimate dream goal for this.
Aransas: I love that and we can measure that one. I, I have to say, the other thing that I really love about the collaboratives is that these companies strengthen one another and so they, we've seen so many innovative partnerships come out of the collaboratives where people.
Connect with other teams and connect around problems to solve and use that access and that connection to form really powerful relationships. And the other thing that, that I think only happens at the collaboratives is that the participating teams get mentored and coached. By the leading experience strategist in the field.
So in addition to all of us, they get to work with Joe Pine and they get to work with Mary Putman, and they get to work with so many of the other thought leaders that we bring in on a quarterly basis [00:19:00] to challenge their thinking. I always say the biggest problems never get solved inside a box. And I pride the collaboratives on being the space outside the box that we intentionally create using behavioral science to create structures and systems that.
Unlock new creative solutions and, and that's what the pandemic did. It created a forcing function for us to get out of our own way and to stop looking at all of our limitations and to look clearly at the possibilities in front of us, and use those in strategic and smart ways to solve problems faster and more impactfully than we'd ever done before.
And so really, so much of the structural devices that we put in place sort of are manufactured pandemics in a sense that we create a sense of urgency. We create, uh, a [00:20:00] push to get really clear on the problems that you want to solve and who the audience is, and we, we accelerate that understanding and that problem solving just by the very design of the collaboratives.
And so I don't think your audacious goal there is that far off. Somebody's gotta be on that list. And it's gotta be the ones who invest in it.
Tiffany: Exactly, exactly. Good point. And you talk, you talk about the, the, the structure. But at the same time, you've got, you've got a great structure, but you've also got organic.
Experiences that happen within the experience of the collaborative, because that was the other thing, you know, I realized is we're so busy right now that, you know, it's hard enough to connect with our other folks within our industry, but to connect with other folks outside our industry. If we are, we're working on the client side, it gives you such a great opportunity to find potential.
Partners to work together that you probably never would encounter in your, your usual corporate [00:21:00] life. And it happens in a very, very organic way because the events that we have, the social time that we have during the collaborative is, is just so natural and so, so thoughtful that you really forge these connections that are, I think, tremendously valuable and really get to learn from the best of the best.
Aransas: It’s true. I, I had now described the collaboratives as Research Plus, and everything we're talking about right now is the plus because as you said, we're also doing research constantly on behalf of the participating customer, uh, companies and their customers. And we do both quant and qual on their behalf so that they have strong, solid, well-vetted solutions that they can carry back in with real confidence.
Um, To your point, I, I think there's nothing worse than having a good idea or feeling inspired, but then not knowing how to get it done. And so it's really from idea
Tiffany: to action. That's another thing that's an amazing value about [00:22:00] the collaborative is I know what I used to spend on research on the client side, and this is just, you know, for less than the cost of one research study.
You get all of this. The innovative, you know, work together, the education, the frameworks, and a play, you know, a, a shared playbook you can use together for years coming out of the collaboratives. So I think it's a tremendous value, uh, that will continue to have payoff beyond just whatever innovative project you develop out of the, out of the time spent there.
Aransas: How should people reach you to get more information? Tiffany?
Tiffany: I think the best way would be to, um, either contact me at Tiffanymura@stonemantle.co, or um, DM me via LinkedIn. I'm always happy to connect with folks and I, I love, I love creating connections across the space. That's something sort of, that I guess I would describe as one of my own personal superpowers is I love to have conversations and [00:23:00] introduce people who need to know each other, and so folks wanna just set up some time to just have a conversation and talk about the industry in general.
I'm always happy to do that. I am Boston based. So I'm kind of in the, the healthcare nerve center of the country. So always happy to grab a coffee and, and catch up and, and hear about what folks are dealing with on a dayday basis with their particular organization.
Aransas: So this is a bit order, but tell us a little bit more about you before we wrap up so that folks can get to know.
Tiffany: Oh, um, you know, I really do love what I do. I feel very fortunate to work in the space where it is really making a difference in people's lives. You know? Um, I've spent a lot of time in the mental health space as a therapeutic area, so I feel like that's another sort of passionary of mine. Um, And outside of work, I actually am an author.
I have a book on World War II nursing that I published, um, about 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more, um, which is a true factual account of a woman who was a nurse in Fiji in India. I have recently finished my first novel and in, in final [00:24:00] edits to hopefully get that published this year. And, um, I bake a lot.
That's kinda, uh, my, my favorite thing to do. Not necessarily to eat it, but to give it away to people, you know, if I know you have a birthday or some special occasion coming up, you can look for a nice, uh, cake or cookies or something. Sweet.
Aransas: Uh, pardon the pun. Okay. Best
Dave: I wanna hear more about this novel at some point.
Tiffany: Yeah, same thing.
Aransas: Absolutely. Well, that's the other thing I think that makes you such a wonderful collaborator is you're a well-rounded human being. And to Dave's point, you are somebody who is as warm and open and curious as you are smart. And that's the sort of people we like to work with. So really, really grateful to be able to welcome you to the team.
For those of you listening out there, if you are in the healthcare industry, please join us for these [00:25:00] 20 23, 20 24 collaboratives. You have just another month or so to sign up. We'll, really. Kickoff in earnest in August, where we begin our experience strategy certification program, which is included in the collaborative program for all participants.
So start assembling a team of maybe four to six people within your organization who want to be a part of this. Pick a problem, reach out to us, we'll get you going, and then we'll kick off with our first real summit for the year in September in Chicago. Those will also be, uh, virtual, so you can attend in person.
Or online. And with that, I just wanna thank you, Tiffany, for sharing your extraordinary experience and gifts with us. As Dave said, we've been in the healthcare space for a lot of years. We have a lot of research there. We have a lot of expertise there. We have some extraordinary partnerships there, and adding you [00:26:00] into that.
Big, rich stew just makes it even better. So thank you for, uh, sharing a little bit more about you and your vision today. Listeners, you know where to find her, Tiffanymura@stonemantle.co, or on LinkedIn. We'll post all those in the show notes as well. Thank you as always for listening. Reach out to. If there's somebody you'd like to hear from on the Experience Strategy Podcast,
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