SHSMD26 Recap

Jenny: Hi friends, welcome to today’s episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, a healthcare marketing podcast. I’m your host, Jenny Bristow, and I’m also the CEO and founder at Hedy & Hopp, a full service, fully healthcare marketing agency. I am so excited to be here with the team from Hedy & Hopp that attended SHSMD last week. We are so excited to come back with some learnings from some of the great sessions that we attended, and share a little bit of our POV of the conference overall.

So we’ll start by just a quick round of introductions. Marissa, I’ll let you kick us off.

Marissa: Hello, I’m Marissa Gurrister, Director of Growth for Hedy & Hopp. 

Sarah: I’m Sarah Cutcliffe, I’m the Director of Epic Services for Hedy & Hopp.

Lindsey: And hi, everyone. I’m Lindsey Brown, the VP of Integrated Marketing. I oversee our Paid Media, our Content Creative and Epic Services divisions.

Jenny: Yeah, so our team had so much fun. Per usual, SHSMD is one of our favorite events every single year. This is, I think, like our seventh or eighth year going. So we always look forward to it. Always have a great time. We did for our session this year. We actually did a lunch workshop. So Sarah and I presented From Access to Action.

It was a 90-minute workshop on how to pull patient appointment and revenue data out of Epic, put campaign UTM parameters into Epic to be able to form a complete picture of your campaign’s performance. So, Sarah, this was your first time presenting at SHSMD, clearly not your first time ever presenting, but I’d love to kick off by getting your thoughts on the session that we presented and some of the Q&A, because we got into some pretty in-depth Q&A with the attendees.

Sarah: Yeah, I was really excited. I knew that we were going to have a full house. We had wonderful attendance. And having that many people that are coming because they’re hungry for Epic information, you know, you’re going to run the gamut. And I’m sure you felt this way, too. It was very clear, watching the reaction of the audience that different groups were at different points in their Epic journey on how they’re using it, the tool.

So I found that to be really helpful to know, like what type of information we can share in these presentations or in these podcasts. Because some of our friends are much more mature in their Cheers journey or their other Epic tools, and they need a little bit more advanced meat and potatoes. So it was exciting to get that read.

And also, yeah, the questions were wonderful. It’s also very clear to me that there are themes that are not specific to any customer that like, everybody is feeling, marketing is getting to know it. I.T. is getting to know marketing. And how do we make that the most lovely transition possible? Because it can be really hard and confusing sometimes if you don’t know who to work with.

So I found it to be informational for me, even though I was sharing some information. Yeah.

Jenny: Yeah, I agree, it was kind of fun because we structured the presentation where we could have it be more high level introductory, but also kind of get into the nerdy weeds a little bit, depending on how we were getting feedback. And we got kind of nerdy and people were following along from a Q&A perspective. So it was very cool to see the difference in experience and even awareness.

Some folks in the audience were writing notes down when we were introducing the names of different tools. Right? So they were very early, which is totally understandable. Whereas other folks were making detailed notes whenever we were talking about some really specific technical implementation tips.

Sarah: So absolutely, I totally agree.

Jenny: Yeah. Very helpful. Marissa, I would love for you to share more information about the booth. This is your second year going to SHSMD, and we had a pretty fun booth presence this year. What did you think?

Marissa: We had a super fun booth. Well I think our booths are always super fun, but it was beautiful. We had a beautiful rug backdrop that was handmade by a family in India. So we’ll add a photo down below and you can check that out. And it’ll be in the newsletter. But it was so pretty. It was so fun.

Loved chatting to folks as they came up to see it and feel it and touch it. I was a little nervous. I was like, don’t touch it. It’s so heavy. I don’t want this thing to fall over. But we did it. And it did not fall over. It was beautiful. And then, of course, we had our Artist in Residence artwork.

Haley Gearo is our Artist in Residencies here. We distributed her prints. It’s so fun. We had several ladies come up and say, “Oh, I’ve been collecting these for years. Like, I can’t wait to add it to my gallery wall”. I know Sarah, like, one woman mentioned to you, this was her powder room artwork. She’s gotta hang it up on the wall, which I love it.

It’s so fun to hear that. And we gave out bracelets. Year after year folks are still coming with their friendship bracelets, so that’s super cool. But honestly, I just loved connecting with folks. Like you said, this is my second year, so there was definitely familiar faces. It’s our first full fall conference, so it was great to get back and see folks who we had seen last year and who I know will be at HCIC. 

So it was just really cool to get to be there and reconnect with folks and have some good conversation.

Jenny: I love it. Well, let’s jump in and highlight some of our favorite sessions and I will actually kick us off. One of my favorite sessions was actually by Ohio Health. They did a session that was called From Acquisition to Acceptance: Building Awareness and Preferences in New Communities, and it was all around the work to integrate newly acquired and rural hospitals into a broader system ecosystem.

So they touched on things like communication strategies, but also talking about some prior lessons that they had seen or experienced through previous acquisitions and how that positively influenced the work that they did. It was really helpful. M&A is something that is quickly changing the landscape of the healthcare ecosystem and continuing to talk about what our role is as marketers to be able to support M&A, is something that I think should just be a steady theme at every conference that we go to.

So great job to both Cody Albert and Christina Thompson who spoke on behalf of Ohio Health. That was a great session. I’ll kick it over to Linds. What was your favorite session?

Lindsey: So one of the ones that I attended was on the last day. It was put on by Dayton Children’s Hospital. It was called Nine Lessons from a Values Driven Culture. And part of what I really loved about this particular session is being able to translate like what a system is doing from an internal perspective, and how that can translate to like what we do here at Hedy & Hopp.

We’re very much a values driven culture, and it’s really important that we have that pull through from even the people that we employ and that we hire to how we manage those folks, how we keep that culture going in a virtual environment. So it was very, eye-opening, I think, in understanding really how your brand can’t, you can’t just go through a rebrand.

We can’t just have these values that we stick up on a wall or stick in a virtual background or on our website, or, you know, that we talk about in a monthly all hands. It really needs to like, pull through in terms of calling out people that are doing an amazing job for specific values, making sure that they’re opportunities for people to have a little bit of joy throughout the workday.

That is really reflective of the values and the culture that, you know, our organization has. So I took a lot away as a leader here at Hedy & Hopp in ways that we can ensure that we are really following and and pulling through those values that we do every single day. And there’s always room to improve there.

But what I also loved about it is, as someone that oversees our creative division that helps organizations go through rebrands so often, the rebrand that also comes with a new brand promise or modified values or something like that. We think about what that’s going to look like externally. What is that going to look like for patients? What’s it going to look like for our internal leadership?

But we don’t always get to how am I going to pull all the way through to the employees that work here, not only in the marketing department that are heavily involved, but all the way through to the clinicians, to the nurses, to the support staff, to the people behind the front desk. And just making sure that we are being good partners with those clients that we work with on rebrands that we’re not forgetting about the implementation.

And one of the things they mentioned in that session is that, you know, those kinds of brands are not like a one-stop shop, like there’s an end date. There’s no end date to that. It continues on and on and on. So the metrics that you use have to evolve on how you’re driving that success, how you’re reinforcing those values.

And again, just a lot of really great information. And I believe it was a two-woman show. So power to the two women that meet that happen. It was Kristen Bowser and Ashley Junkunc. They they were amazing presenters. They had amazing ideas and just major kudos to how, dedicated they were to seeing this vision come to life and ensuring that the employees at Dayton Children’s really were feeling and living that culture.

So Bravo ladies.

Jenny: I love it. That’s great. Sarah, what was your favorite?

Sarah: I, women’s health is near and dear to my heart as a woman, obviously, but as a woman owned company, too. I attended one called The Playbook: Where Rivals Unite to Champion Women’s Health as a Strategic Priority. It was extra interesting because Ohio State and Michigan partnered for this, which I can’t say was ever on my bingo card.

Whether that would be in athletics or, in a health care conference. But they both institutions talked about how they reimagined providing care for women at their institutions. I found it to be really powerful because obviously it was data driven. They could see that they were having poor outcomes with the existing structures that were in place. Especially surrounding like maternal health was a big ticket item for both of them.

And they were able to say, okay, we know this is wrong, both by data and feel and feedback. How can we reimagine this for better outcomes, not just for our institutions, but for our patients and the success that both of them could demonstrate in better outcomes for babies, for moms, for women in general. And just like expanding the idea of what women’s health is, it was just a very powerful presentation.

And I learned a lot. So it it inspired me to in the way that we can support our clients, like when something feels right, when we know that this should be a priority. How do you find the data to support what is working, what isn’t working, and how do you take that leap to reimagine how you can, you know, change for the better?

And then, I mean, they felt so strongly that they, these rivals came together to talk through this, this wonderful development for both of them. So that was Luanne Thomas Ewald, Jennifer Dauer, and it was moderated by Priya Bathija. And she is like, she works with both institutions as an outside consultant. It was a wonderful experience.

Jenny: Very nice I love it. Marissa brings home.

Marissa: Yes, of course. So I attended a fabulous session called Beyond Automation: How Human Centered Community Engagement Builds Trust in an AI Era. And that was with Rachel Conley from Rochester Regional. This one specifically spoke to my little heart. I started my healthcare career on the events team doing healthcare events for a large system, so it was really cool to get to sit in and hear how Rochester Regional was utilizing their local sponsorships to really build trust in the community and hear from them some of the innovative ways that they were really smart with their sponsorships and extending their reach.

Sometimes it is truly quality over quantity. So they were really focused in on doing some super fun things and activations, some key events they held like a jazz festival, which is really cool, which I want to go to. It sounds so fun. And then also a big 5K race. So super fun to hear from them.

All of the innovative ways. AI is obviously a really hot and sexy topic. I think we heard a lot about it at conference, but it was just really refreshing to actually just like go back to our roots for a second and think, like, if we’re going to be at these events, like, what can we do to connect with our community on a really personal level?

And not always have to have, like AI involved in every single thing we do. So it was a really refreshing topic. Great to hear from them. It was her first conference presentation and she absolutely crushed it. I was so proud of her, so it was really fun. I loved that one.

Jenny: I love it. I will say that actually brings up a really interesting point, Marissa. I feel as though AI was woven into some sessions, but it was not the star of the conference like it was last year or the year before. The novelty has really worn off, where you can’t just say AI in your presentation topic and you’re automatically going to get a spot to speak, or, you know, the room is going to be packed.

At this point, people care more about what was the actual meaningful outcome. And how did you really keep the patient and your team front and center as you were doing this implementation? So very good point about that. And I’m interested to see, we leave in what, two weeks, we’re going to be in Orlando for HCIC. So we’ll do a similar recap then.

And we’ll share and kind of have that be a string that connects the two of what is the trend of AI content there? Is it a similar approach where maybe it’s part of the broader conversation, or are there going to be sessions and more tighter conversations where AI is more of a star? So stay tuned, listener, we will give you an update on that in a couple of weeks.

And besides that, thank you again for the entire team. They did a phenomenal job organizing this conference. Once again. Great to see so many familiar faces and we are already looking forward to 2027. And with that, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate your time. If there’s any topics that you want us to cover, give us a holler.

We would love to do an episode featuring a topic that is of interest to you, whether it’s going deeper into one of our Epic topics or one of the other areas that we love getting nerdy on. But that’s it for today’s episode of We Are, Marketing Happy. Be sure to tune in next week for a fresh episode.

Cheers!