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touch point podcast

touch point podcast

Written by: touch point media
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 touch point is a podcast dedicated to discussions on digital marketing and online patient engagement strategies for hospitals, health systems, and physicians' practices. In each episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer dive deep into a variety of topics on the digital tools, solutions, strategies, and processes that are impacting the healthcare industry today.touch point media © 2023. All rights reserved. Economics Hygiene & Healthy Living Marketing Marketing & Sales Politics & Government
Episodes
  • TP487: ICYMI - "When Does 'Patient Access' Actually Begin?"

    TP487: ICYMI - "When Does 'Patient Access' Actually Begin?"
    May 13 2026
    TP342 argued that patient access doesn't begin when someone calls for an appointment. It begins much earlier, in the digital layer, before the patient is sure they need care. That premise held. What changed is who owns the layer. Three years ago, the digital layer was something a health system could design, instrument and measure. Today, the patient's first contact happens in a synthesis interface no health system controls. Chris and Reed revisit TP342 this week with a brief intro that connects Reed's "AI and Access" thesis on LinkedIn to the original argument, an honest update on where the premise held, and a frame for listening back with three years of new context. In this encore conversation, Chris and Reed cover: Why patient access doesn't begin at the appointment, and what the real starting point actually is How digital is reshaping the front door of the health system Why "scheduling" is the wrong first metric for an access strategy Where the original argument still holds, and where the synthesis layer changes the picture If access begins in a layer you don't own, then every digital investment downstream of it is downstream of someone else's interface. Mentions from the Show: Original episode: TP342, When Does "Patient Access" Actually Begin? https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp342-when-does-patient-access-actually-begin/ Reed Smith, "AI and Access in Healthcare" LinkedIn series: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedtsmith/recent-activity/all/ TP471, Developing a "Route-First" Access Strategy: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp471-developing-a-route-first-access-strategy/ TP473, When Demand Outruns Supply: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp473-when-demand-outruns-supply/ TP476, Good Enough for People Is Not Good Enough for Machines: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp476-good-enough-for-people-is-not-good-enough-for-machines/ Reed Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedtsmith/ Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/ Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com/ Chris Boyer on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social Reed Smith on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/reedsmith.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 mins
  • TP486: Live from HMPS26 — Trust at Scale, and the Marketing Value Problem Underneath It

    TP486: Live from HMPS26 — Trust at Scale, and the Marketing Value Problem Underneath It
    May 6 2026
    60% of healthcare marketing AI spend goes to writing copy. 6% goes to identifying patients who need care. Live from HMPS26 in Salt Lake City, Chris Boyer is joined by Craig Blake of Amsive Health, Jane Crosby of True North Custom and John Berndt of Valtech Health for a panel conversation on what the conference and the new Health System CMO Survey exposed about marketing's role inside health systems. The conversation opens with data and targeting and how the aging population is reshaping who marketers need to reach. It shifts to patient activation and the goldmine of existing patients sitting unactivated inside the system, then to loyalty and the structural problem of marketing's measurement gap. 72% of departments don't track campaigns through to completed care. 47% have no clear owner for activating existing patients. The panel takes a hard look at the simple prescription that "outside thinking will fix this," with Jane and John pushing back on the assumption that CMOs from other industries can move faster inside healthcare than the people already there. The conversation closes on AI: where it's actually being deployed in health systems, why most spend lands on content production rather than patient identification, and how LLM disruption is starting to show up at urgent care visits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • TP485: Digital Equity Is Health Equity

    TP485: Digital Equity Is Health Equity
    Apr 29 2026
    In 2025, U.S. digital health startups raised $14.2 billion. AI-enabled companies captured 54% of it. Every prediction in every roundup carries one quiet assumption underneath it. The patient on the receiving end can use what's being built. The Pew data from January says something different. Two trajectories. One looks like progress in aggregate. The other looks like the patients with the worst health outcomes being structurally locked out of the system that's being built. Chris Boyer and Reed Smith examine what happens when digital strategy and health equity stop being parallel tracks and become the same problem. Why the 2026 AI investment narrative quietly assumes a digitally capable patient, and what the population data actually shows The smartphone-dependent patient most health systems haven't internalized, and why portal UX fails them by design Why disparities in patient portal access are widening for low-income, less-educated and 65-plus populations, even as overall use rises What the 2025 cancellation of federal digital equity funding means for health systems whose patient panels actually need the work done Modality mix as the reframe: digital, phone, in-person and printed channels as a portfolio allocated by segment, not a hierarchy everyone migrates toward The University of Michigan study published in JAMA Network Open in October is the one to anchor on. Researchers looked at 511 hospitals in 51 counties in 17 states where census data showed at least 300,000 LEP residents. 29% of those hospitals offered the patient portal login in English only. 60% offered English plus Spanish. 11% offered three or more languages. In counties specifically chosen because they have hundreds of thousands of patients who don't speak English at home. If your most-invested-in digital experience reaches the patients who already had the most options, and barely touches the patients with the worst outcomes, what is your digital strategy actually optimizing for? Mentions from the Show: Pew Research Center, NPORS 2025, January 2026: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/08/internet-use-smartphone-ownership-digital-divides-in-u-s/ Pew Research Center, Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet, December 2025: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/ Pew Research Center, Mobile Fact Sheet, December 2025: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ OATS / Benton Institute, 19 Million Older Adults Lack Broadband, 2025: https://www.benton.org/blog/19-million-older-adults-lack-broadband Shah & Fiala, Disparities in Patient Portal Access and Utilization, Journal of General Internal Medicine, January 2025: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-025-09359-z Chen et al. (U-Michigan), Language Barriers and Access to Hospital Patient Portals in the US, JAMA Network Open, October 2025: https://ihpi.umich.edu/news-events/news/language-barriers-health-care-have-fallen-not-online-study-shows Healthcare Dive, Top healthcare AI trends in 2026 (Rock Health funding data), January 2026: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/top-healthcare-ai-artificial-intelligence-trends-2026/809493/ HIT Consultant / CB Insights, Q1 2026 Digital Health Funding, April 2026: https://hitconsultant.net/2026/04/20/digital-health-funding-q1-2026-ai-ma-rebound/ Chief Healthcare Executive, AI in health care: 26 leaders offer predictions for 2026, January 2026: https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/ai-in-health-care-26-leaders-offer-predictions-for-2026 JMIR, Bridging Rural America's Digital Divide in Health Care, December 2025: https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e88833 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School, Bridging the Digital Divide in Health Care: A New Framework for Equity, January 2025: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/bridging-the-digital-divide-in-health-care-a-new-framework-for-equity NPR, How ending the Digital Equity Act has disrupted programs to help people get online, November 2025: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/12/nx-s1-5594805/how-ending-the-digital-equity-act-has-disrupted-programs-to-help-people-get-online ScienceDirect narrative review, Addressing language barriers in U.S. healthcare, November 2025: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772632025000418 Reed Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedtsmith/ Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/ Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com/ Chris Boyer on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social Reed Smith on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/reedsmith.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    35 mins
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