606 - Consumer Engagement Done Right: Designing Digital Health Experiences With Consumers

In this episode of Talking Health Tech, host Peter Birch welcomes Shelley Thompson, co-founder of Patient Experience Agency, to discuss the critical yet often misunderstood concept of consumer engagement in digital health. Shelley emphasizes that true consumer engagement goes beyond one-way feedback collection—it's a continuous, collaborative partnership with patients, caregivers, and communities throughout the entire service design lifecycle. She highlights how healthcare organizations frequently design solutions around internal workflows rather than the lived experiences of patients, leading to innovations that solve the wrong problems. Using the 'listen, define, co-create' framework and tools like patient journey mapping, Shelley illustrates how organizations can uncover systemic gaps—such as fragmented care pathways for dementia patients—that aren't visible within individual departments. The conversation also addresses practical barriers to engagement, including time constraints, fear of criticism, and the need for safe, honest feedback environments. Shelley shares real-world examples where cross-service collaboration led to meaningful improvements, and promotes her podcast 'Consumer Health Partnerships' as a platform showcasing authentic, human-centered partnerships in health innovation. The episode concludes with actionable steps for organizations to build sustainable consumer engagement capabilities. Key takeaways include: 1) Consumer engagement must be a core organizational capability, not a one-off activity; 2) Use human-centered design methods like journey mapping to uncover problems that exist between services; 3) Engage the right people with relevant lived experience, not just any patient; 4) Create safe spaces for honest feedback by acknowledging power dynamics and time pressures; 5) Combine advisory groups, co-design workshops, and embedded digital feedback loops for continuous improvement; 6) Validate solutions with evidence, not just founder intuition; 7) Share impact—let participants know how their input influenced outcomes. The overall tone is constructive, hopeful, and deeply practical, with a strong emphasis on empathy, collaboration, and systemic thinking.