New Technology, Same Human Needs
As AI becomes a bigger part of how people search for health information and manage their lives, healthcare organizations are having to rethink how they connect with their patients. While the technology is changing, what people need remains the same: easy access to care, accurate and useful information, and support that fits their lives.
At the 2026 Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC), Pamela Landis and Frank MacPherson shared their perspective on how healthcare organizations can use technology to improve patient engagement. MacPherson focused on content, personalization, and collaboration. Landis challenged the industry to make access easier and to support patients between visits.
Making Care Easier to Access
For Landis, access is the part of the patient digital experience that healthcare leaders should be most ambitious about fixing.
“It’s not that we don’t have availability; we don’t have an easy way for patients to get access to that availability,” Landis said. “They want access to their doctors, and they have good doctors, but we make it too hard for them to get an appointment.”
She sees the problem as both digital and in person, and it often starts with how schedules are set up. Physicians are committed to seeing their patients, but their schedules can make booking difficult. By rethinking that setup, she said, organizations can make it easier for people to digitally self-serve without changing the number of hours physicians work.
In her view, health systems need to remove the barriers that keep patients from booking time with their doctors. “We need to get out of their way,” she said.
Making Healthcare Content Easier to Find
With more people using AI-powered search tools, healthcare organizations are looking at how their content appears in search results and AI-generated responses.
For MacPherson, the fundamentals of good content haven’t changed.
“You have to have good content. You have to have relevant and fresh content. It has to be optimized,” he said.
He pointed out that even small details, like working links, accurate phone numbers, and complete provider profiles, can influence whether someone schedules an appointment.
For example, someone searching for a new provider might come across a healthcare organization’s website through an AI recommendation. If the provider’s page is missing a photo or important information, they may decide to look elsewhere.
MacPherson emphasized that blogs, videos, podcasts, and provider information all play a role in helping people find the care they need. It’s a point that connects to Landis’: finding the right provider is only helpful if booking the appointment is easy too.
Supporting Patients Between Visits
Landis also sees a disconnect between what health systems build and what patients actually need, especially for people living with chronic conditions such as diabetes or congestive heart failure.
“Visits are critical. Nobody’s going to take those away,” she said. “But what are the things that we can do using digital tools to make that time in between better for the patient?”
She described how that could work. If a patient with type 1 diabetes has numbers that go out of control, an alert could reach someone monitoring in the physician’s office, who could then reach out to help. A patient with congestive heart failure could send in their daily weight, and if it reaches an alert stage, the care team could adjust their medication.
The goal is to connect what’s happening in the home to the physician’s office, so that care teams hear about the moments that need their attention.
Making Healthcare Communication More Personal
MacPherson also sees personalization as one of the biggest opportunities for healthcare marketing.
“The biggest opportunity is personalization. Get as close as you can to a one-to-one conversation with your patients,” he said.
Connecting electronic medical records (EMRs) with customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help organizations better understand their audiences and share information that’s more relevant to them.
MacPherson emphasized that personalization should always be approached with patient privacy in mind.
His team currently uses Salesforce tools to tailor email content based on factors such as geographic location and other available audience information.
Rather than sending the same message to everyone, the goal is to provide information that reflects people’s individual needs.
Keeping People at the Center
Landis sees AI tools as the third major wave of change in healthcare, following the internet and the smartphone. Each wave has given patients more control, especially after the HITECH Act encouraged physician offices to digitize their records and patients gained access to their own health information. “My health is in my hands” became the new mindset, she said.
Because people already turn to AI platforms with health questions, she believes health systems should work with those companies. “My challenge to those companies is: partner with us, so that we make sure you’re getting the right information at the right time for the right patient,” she said. She hopes companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI will help patients manage their care, which is only one part of their lives, and give physicians more insight into the care they provide.
MacPherson’s experience shows that progress also depends on teamwork. Better communication between marketing, clinical, IT, and data teams helped his organization cut campaign launch times from about nine months to about 30 days. Setting clear responsibilities early, he said, helps teams avoid unnecessary delays.
Whether someone finds a provider through Google or an AI-powered search tool, both MacPherson and Landis believe the basics still matter: information people can trust, a simple way to book an appointment, and support that continues after they leave the office.
About Pamela DeSalvo Landis
Pamela Landis is senior vice president of digital engagement at Hackensack Meridian Health, an $10 billion integrated health network in New Jersey. Overall She leads a team responsible for making access to and management of healthcare easier for patients, consumers, providers and team members. Her team is responsible for a centralized, multi-channel Patient Access Center that supports all HMH practices and hospitals, all web sites (both internal and external), social media, all mobile applications, customer relationship management marketing, consumer analytics and insights, search engine optimization and marketing, digital marketing and patient engagement tools like MyChart, patient texting and online appointment scheduling. Prior to joining Hackensack Meridian, she led digital efforts at Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C. and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. She began her career in healthcare at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and has worked in Washington, D.C. as a communications professional for lobbying organizations and a reporter for Gannett. She is a graduate of Ohio University in Athens, OH and earned a master’s degree in health informatics from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
About Frank MacPherson
Frank MacPherson has led the digital marketing efforts at ChristianaCare since 2017, following a distinguished, multi-disciplinary marketing career in a variety of sectors. Evidence-based marketing is ingrained in his DNA. Frank lives outside Philadelphia, PA with his wife, two children, and cockapoo and is willing to talk at length about the Phillies on demand.
