It took a pandemic to spotlight the reality simmering within U.S. communities and around the globe: sadly, health is often bound to social determinants like ethnicity, gender, zip codes, and ability status.

Many health systems have accelerated momentum around diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, installing DE&I officers or, at minimum, zealously publishing equity statements. Two years into the pandemic, significant work remains, but DE&I is now more firmly positioned in the healthcare landscape.

Here’s what our experts in healthcare have to say about DE&I

“Wherever a client is on the spectrum of DE&I strategy—from crafting an initial perspective to having a robust and widely shared philosophy and set of practices—one of the most important factors to consider is authenticity. If a statement or action comes across as insincere or “for the sake of,” it will fall flat with audiences and perhaps even alienate them. Authenticity is conveyed not just in the overall messaging, style, and tone of the words themselves, but also in how it’s underpinned with tangible actions and strategies. One can’t exist without the other, and business leaders must challenge themselves to speak with sincerity and act with commitment.” – Theresa Rich, Strategist & Solutions Architect, Healthcare

“Pharmaceutical clinical trial participation has historically suffered from a lack of diversity. White participants are grossly over-represented even though chronic disease disproportionately impacts minority racial and ethnic populations. This disconnect creates troubling blind spots in the safety and efficacy of new therapies for population subgroups. Fortunately, the growth of decentralized trials has the potential of narrowing this divide, and we’re excited about our ability to help organizations realize greater equity in this important work.” – Param Singh, Director, Healthcare

“The work we do with personas and journeys really highlights the difference in approach to care and the consumer’s decision-making process. We think through the journey of someone with complete access to healthcare, to someone who has a high-deductible or governmentally funded insurance. We examine the way that a person’s first language, preferred pronouns or sexual orientation might affect the language or messaging used. We also think through the user experience and provide clear and unified pathways for those who might need to consume the digital presence in a different format, for instance keyboard alternation, language translations, screen readers, and other considerations.” – Kayla Brown, Lead Business Consultant, Healthcare

“We are balancing a need for better, quicker, and faster digital health experiences with the real and pervasive risk that if we build these tools without thinking all the time about DE&I, we could be building inequities into the foundations of the digital world we hope will transform healthcare by removing those very inequities. This moves beyond the obvious areas of AI and ML to also include decisions around change management, governances, and the softer aspects of deploying all these new digital capabilities.” – David Allen, Director, Healthcare

Healthcare Leaders Turn to Us

Healthcare organizations play a key role in offering access to care, employing, and motivating skilled workers, and acting as social safety nets in their communities. They, along with life sciences organizations, serve on the front lines of addressing health equity. Perficient is dedicated to enabling these organizations to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their companies.

Our healthcare practice is comprised of experts who understand the unique challenges facing the industry. The 10 largest health systems and 10 largest health insurers in the U.S. have counted on us to support their end-to-end digital success. Modern Healthcare has also recognized us as the fourth largest healthcare IT consulting firm.

We bring pragmatic, strategically-grounded know-how to our clients’ initiatives. And our work gets attention – not only by industry groups that recognize and award our work but also by top technology partners that know our teams will reliably deliver complex, game-changing implementations. Most importantly, our clients demonstrate their trust in us by partnering with us again and again. We are incredibly proud of our 90% repeat business rate because it represents the trust and collaborative culture that we work so hard to build every day within our teams and with every client.

With more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Perficient is a trusted, end-to-end, global digital consultancy.