The Consumer Co-Lab brings together Leading Health Systems (LHS) to establish an experiential learning community for healthcare leaders who emphasize fostering consumerism as a key strategic priority.

As health systems work toward a consumer-oriented healthcare experience that patients value, The Health Management Academy (The Academy) has partnered with Cedar to launch The Academy-Cedar Consumer Co-Lab.

The Consumer Co-Lab brings together senior executives from the nation’s Leading Health Systems (LHS) to establish an experiential learning community for healthcare leaders who emphasize fostering consumerism as a strategic priority. Cedar—named by Fierce Healthcare as one of the industry’s most innovative companies—will bring deep subject matter expertise, health tech capabilities, consumer insights, and best practices from consumer-centric industries to help health system executives push beyond the status quo.

Over the last two years, LHS in The Academy’s community have made it clear that addressing consumerism in healthcare is not a one-time initiative, but an imperative to ensure patients have access to affordable, high-quality, personalized healthcare. To help LHS execute their long-term consumer vision, the inaugural Consumer Co-Lab will take place in October 2022 followed by bi-annual events throughout 2023-2024. These events will include key stakeholders across the health system executive suite (e.g., strategy, operations, finance, digital health, marketing).

Health systems are embracing bold strategies to cultivate consumer loyalty, develop sophisticated data and analytics strategies, and create comprehensive digital engagement and care delivery models. Beyond providing opportunities for LHS executives to share their learnings across these domains, the Consumer Co-Labs will enable participants to gather instant feedback from their colleagues nationwide.

“As Leading Health Systems refine, design, and execute consumer-centric strategies, we are firm in our conviction that collaboration will be key to innovation,” said Renee DeSilva, CEO of The Academy. “We are thrilled to launch the Consumer Co-Lab in partnership with Cedar and are humbled to bring forth another opportunity for health system leaders to work together on an urgent imperative, supporting one another from ideation to implementation at scale.”

Cedar, an enterprise healthcare engagement platform that aligns providers and payers to improve the end-to-end consumer financial journey, enters the Consumer Co-Lab with partnerships across dozens of healthcare organizations, including Providence, Yale New Haven Health, Novant Health, and ChristianaCare, who are also Leading Health Systems. With products that span the consumer healthcare experience and as an existing member of six of The Academy’s executive convening programs, Cedar is well-positioned to think holistically about consumer strategies most responsive to the needs of the LHS executive suite. As a platform that enables patient-centric financial engagement across the care journey, Cedar brings a wealth of knowledge about leveraging data science, UX design, and personalization to foster impactful consumer engagement.

“Through data-driven insight and innovation, we understand the unique challenges that providers, payers, and patients face when it comes to the healthcare financial experience, and we’re committed to bringing a modern consumer experience to everyone’s healthcare journey,” said Florian Otto, CEO and co-founder of Cedar. “We’re excited to be partnering with The Academy to bring the Consumer Co-Lab to life so we can work alongside Leading Health Systems and develop consumer-centric strategies that improve outcomes for all parties.”

The pandemic has had a permanent impact on how consumers communicate with—and assess—their providers. The Consumer Co-Lab will facilitate experiential learning and engagement opportunities across the healthcare ecosystem, never losing sight of the key driver of innovation: the patient.