Diverse Teams in Health Tech: More Than a Box to Check
The need for diverse teams in tech has been widely pontificated by the likes of Forbes, Deloitte, and Harvard Business Review. Diversity of experience through geographic location, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, occupational experience, and cultural norms among others factors are proven to improve business outcomes. “Diversity bonuses,” as they are called, are especially pronounced when a team is faced with a complex, highly-dimensional, and indecomposable task. These are the types of problems constantly faced when working with digital technology solutions.
Ethnically diverse companies are reported to be 35% more likely to have financial returns above industry medians, 87% more likely to make better decisions than non-inclusive ones, as diverse perspectives lead to more careful information processing, and studies have shown these teams continuously deliver more innovative solutions to problems.
This diversity bonus is important for any multinational company trying to increase margins, but critical when thinking about digital products that facilitate the delivery of healthcare services. Digital health solutions can run the gamut from electronic health record (EHR) software, to telehealth platforms, to claims processing systems and beyond. What all of these digital health companies have in common is the goal of helping the end user cut through red tape in order to improve some aspect of their health system journey. Healthcare is always personal, and diverse teams are suited to build products that consider the nuances in different lives experiences.
Beyond the purely multiplicative effect of ideating solutions to healthcare problems with a diverse team, these teams gain something greater than the sum of their parts when they come together: empathy. Empathy, defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is the elusive key ingredient to a product development process that builds solutions that become truly indispensable to end users. Diverse teams inherently possess a heightened ability to understand the diverse needs, concerns, and nuances of discrete populations. This understanding translates into products that resonate with users on a deeper level, acknowledging the unique challenges they face in their health system journeys.
Take the example of a product team developing a remote patient monitoring device aimed at enhancing the management of cardiovascular conditions. The initial design was robust, focusing on real-time data collection and seamless communication with healthcare providers. During a routine usability testing session, a team member with a background in cultural anthropology noticed a potential issue that had not been considered. The device’s interface, which primarily used color-coded indicators for various health parameters, posed a challenge for individuals with color blindness. This team member shared their knowledge about the prevalence of color blindness in males, and how it might impact the user experience. Given that cardiovascular disease is more prevalent in the male population, a significant portion of the user population might struggle with interpreting vital health information due to their design choices. The individual’s diverse perspective brought attention to an edge case that could have been overlooked, potentially leading to serious consequences for users who relied on the accuracy of the device to manage their heart condition.
The redesigned product accounted for this by adding symbols to their design. This UX adjustment was not only more inclusive for individuals with color vision deficiencies, but improved the rate at which individuals checked in with their doctors, leading to earlier interventions when negative patterns arose. As seen in this example, diversity in technology healthcare teams can have a true impact on patient outcomes.
As technology continues to shape the future of healthcare, diverse teams are most equipped to propel the industry toward a more inclusive, empathetic, and effective future where healthcare is personalized and compassionate journey. As artificial intelligence and machine learning advance, it is also important to have diverse teams working on algorithms that may affect the delivery of healthcare. Algorithms learn bias just like humans do, through data and experiences, and having teams with varied experience can spot these patterns and intervene earlier.
The imperative for diverse technology teams extends beyond a corporate checkbox — it should be a requirement to ensure digital health solutions resonate with the intricacies of the human experience. The future of healthcare delivery and patient outcomes are dependent on digital technology, and in turn on diverse teams to build thoughtful, empathetic products.
1. “Create an example of where an individual’s diverse perspective brought an edge case to a product team’s attention and it improved a healthcare product,” ChatGPT, OpenAI, 6 Dec. 2023
