The Consequences of Generic Healthcare Messaging in America — and
The following is a guest article by SriVani Ganti, Senior Director of Health Equity, Content & Creative Services at mPulse
My grandmother did not speak English. She spoke Telugu, the fourth most commonly spoken language in India.
I remember trying to secure medical care for her once, and a practitioner told me I couldn’t translate on her behalf. Instead, a third-party translator needed to confirm she was providing consent.
So, we put the phone to my grandmother’s ear. She listened to the translator for a few moments and then looked back at me in confusion. The hospital’s translator was fluent in Tagalog, not Telugu.
It’s a seemingly innocent mistake, yet one that speaks to a far more pervasive and harmful problem — the lack of cultural consideration in American healthcare messaging. Cultural nuance is inseparable from the healthcare experiences we’re able to provide. Yet too often, we resort to broad, generalized messaging that fails to account for differences among our patients.
This lack of consideration reinforces pre-existing divisions between healthcare practitioners and those receiving it, especially among already marginalized communities. And it’s all too common. From cardiovascular health to Lyme disease to pregnancy, our healthcare approaches and communication strategies are both too generic and too specific. They’re too generic in their impact and too specific in catering to the experiences of certain segments of the American population over others.
To do better, we must aim for more representative healthcare messaging, patient care, and data infrastructure.
The Centuries-Long Scope of Medical Distrust
Medical distrust does not happen by accident. It’s the byproduct of centuries of medical racism, colonialism, and systemic bias. It manifests in siloes that teach healthcare providers to treat the majority and overlook the minority. This results in many healthcare consumers (i.e., all of us) feeling unseen when walking into a clinician’s office.
In many ways, medical practitioners are set up to fail. Our healthcare system incentivizes efficiency above all else — providers may spend as little as 13 minutes with a patient. This offers barely enough time to discuss an effective treatment plan, let alone account for each patient’s cultural background and unique personal needs.
The root of our problem stretches into academia, where many medical students aren’t taught how to prioritize impactful and effective health communication. They often receive little training on navigating the complex background of each patient. It’s also an unfair ask. Especially given the unique cultural nuances that influence how healthcare teams should treat each patient.
The dangers of our culturally insensitive medical system extend beyond healthcare settings, too. Health misinformation and disinformation, especially on social media, are natural byproducts of care that are not culturally informed. Today, health consumers understandably look elsewhere for the answers and validation they fail to find in traditional healthcare settings.
To rebuild trust, we require culturally relevant healthcare communications that lead with empathy. We need healthcare systems that acknowledge the range of unique human experiences and are informed by each patient’s understanding of their own health.
An Evolved Approach to Healthcare Messaging
Rethinking how health plans can engage member populations in a more culturally nuanced way requires reframing and intention, but it’s possible. Healthcare leaders aiming to improve the quality of their communications should consider the following three steps:
Audit Your Information Sources
Bridging the gap with historically underrepresented communities requires a new approach to healthcare communication. While academia still holds tremendous value as an information source, I advise against relying solely on these institutions to inform your messaging strategy.
Instead, go directly to the source. There’s no shortage of community leaders championing incredible grassroots efforts related to health education. Talk to them. Learn what obstacles they’re encountering and what strategies have helped them break through to skeptical health consumers in the past.
Take inspiration from social media, too. Joel Bervell, for instance, is a TikTok influencer who’s amassed over 700,000 followers for his videos debunking health misconceptions — he details how communities of color have been left out of many healthcare conversations. His accessible, engaging, and validating content shows how we can more effectively communicate with and care for patients.
Support Providers in Prioritizing Empathy During Patient Visits
We’ve all suffered through a doctor’s appointment where our provider was speaking at us, not to us. It’s an isolating feeling, and one providers should avoid, even during a time crunch.
The advice sounds simple enough. Define complex medical terminology. Speak slowly and use short sentences. Check-in periodically to see if patients are still on board. But these small actions go a long way, and they start with health plans that handle more of the heavy lifting so providers can focus on patient care.
For example, visual and digital media now offer powerful communication tools capable of sharing complex medical information in accessible and appealing ways. However, health communication still tends to rely on traditional media strategies like newspapers, print ads, and radio, which work for some, but not all. Daring to venture into channels such as SMS can be powerful. Similarly, using plain language and culturally relevant visual assets can help healthcare providers better connect with individuals and ensure their message resonates before and during patient visits. Simply put, representation matters.
Championing culturally relevant resources and more comprehensive health plans allows providers to engage patients on a person-to-person level — with a greater awareness of and empathy for cultural practices, beliefs, common fears, and more.
Optimize Healthcare Plans with Data Inclusivity in Mind
Comprehensive data is a prerequisite to culturally minded health plans. Without data that’s inclusive of race, gender identification, age, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and more, it will remain a challenge to tailor your content and communication on a patient-by-patient basis.
I often suggest referring to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines as a jumping-off point. Here we see how data enables scalability in your messaging and greater creativity in your communication style. For example, instead of a generic email blast encouraging patients to receive timely vaccinations, imagine offering different communities spokespeople (or fictional characters) that speak directly to their experiences and healthcare concerns.
Any attempt to pull off this type of campaign without up-to-date, reliable data risks coming off as insensitive or alienating key populations. Health plans can look to specialized partners to avoid this outcome and instead achieve more data-driven outreach. These third-party leaders can help integrate your consumer engagement platforms with a robust, connected data layer — setting the foundation for accurate, inclusive, and easily accessible data insights to inform your communication strategies.
Make Culturally Nuanced Communications an Everyday Practice
There’s no quick fix to bridging the gap with health consumers who have been traditionally left out of the conversation. Trust is hard-earned.
However, culturally relevant health communication is a step in the right direction. By rethinking our approach to data, patient communication, and information sourcing, we can do our part in ensuring a care experience that reflects the humanity of every health consumer.
Because the difference between Tagalog and Telugu can really be life or death when our healthcare is on the line — and embedding a tailored approach throughout all patient communications and health plans is an important step toward a better healthcare future for all Americans.
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