Communicating Healthcare and Information Design with Kristie Kuhl

Good health is one of the things that we value as most important in our lives. When other tragedies strike, people often will remark that at least they have their health. And even when all other things are going well, being in poor health (even momentarily with a minor illness) can completely through us out of balance. 

But despite the importance of  our health, our relation to and understanding of our health can be pretty limited. Healthcare literacy and patient literacy continues to be a challenge for most people. And there can be a lot to understand and keep up with giving that healthcare information continues to change as new things emerge (like pandemics), new discoveries are made, and new products are marketed.

So the challenge becomes how do we communicate healthcare information to help providers, patients, and caregivers in their efforts to achieve better healthcare outcomes.

Today’s guest on Experience by Design to help us address these questions is Kristie Kuhl, Global Managing Director of Health and Wellness at the Zeno Group. Kristie began her career as an attorney, but before that majored in art history. We discuss how her beginnings as an art history major helped her understand the complexities and nuances of meaning. She channels this understanding to think about how people receive messages and information, recognizing the importance of meeting them where they are. Her legal background ironically helped understand the need to have clear representation of meaning and the need to communicate in ways that people understand. And her concern for people and desire for positive health outcomes has helped to bring both of her worlds together at the Zeno Group.

We talk about her journey into the world of healthcare communication and what she has learned in the process. We explore how diagnosis is an emotional moment, and that healthcare products are often ones that no one really wants to buy.  We talk about the need to stylize communication for different communities, cultures, and generations. Finally we talk about the importance of communication training for people who have knowledge, and how to connect content to an audience’s humanity.