This year's Healthcare Interactive Conference (HCIC) brought digital teams together around the shared reality that modernization is urgent. Still, most organizations are trying to deliver it with tight resources and fragmented structures.
The biggest themes covered included governance, accessibility, and long-term planning. There was a clear consensus that good patient experiences are only possible with stronger digital foundations.
Governance remains the biggest barrier to progress
The push to modernize, connect systems, and raise content standards keeps colliding with the same core issue of weak or inconsistent governance. Across UX, marketing, and IT, teams identified the same blockers:
- Unclear ownership
- Outdated or conflicting content
- Pressure to publish without a strategy
- Leadership changes and internal politics wiping out the existing structure
Without clear rules, roles, and content standards, modernization efforts slow down or stall. The interest in new technology made this even more apparent. Many teams want AI to improve content creation, patient access, and information sharing, but fragile foundations limit what AI can safely support. Solid governance and a well-structured content model must come first.
For a deeper dive, see Smart AI Integration: Moving Beyond Chatbots and Quick Fixes.
Accessibility and access pressures are rising
Accessibility and patient access dominated several conversations at HCIC. Healthcare organizations are facing higher expectations from regulators, patients, and internal stakeholders while simultaneously confronting the challenges patients face when searching for and understanding basic information. Health literacy challenges, language barriers, mobile limitations, inconsistent interfaces, and disconnected systems continue to get in the way of usable patient journeys.
Websites now function as part of the care process, guiding people to appointments, providers, and instructions. Meeting that responsibility with limited staff, constrained budgets, and rising burnout is pushing many teams to their limits. Large-scale accessibility reviews and remediation can feel unmanageable, especially for organizations with complex web ecosystems.
For teams looking for a manageable entry point, see our guide: How to Do a Web Accessibility Audit.
Multi-year digital roadmaps are replacing one-off redesigns
A notable shift at HCIC is that healthcare organizations are moving away from one-time redesigns and toward long-term digital roadmaps. This reflects a broader shift toward:
- Stability and predictability
- Consistent design and content standards
- Continuous, incremental improvement
- Longer-term partner relationships instead of short, transactional vendor engagements
For organizations managing complex structures and tight budgets, this model is proving to be far more sustainable. It creates room for clear priorities, manageable sequencing, and steady progress that can continue even as strategies or leadership change.
What this means for digital work in healthcare
To sum up the conversations at HCIC, healthcare organizations must now focus on the following:
- Stronger governance
- Better content structure
- Accessible information
- Consistent user experience
- Solid AI foundations
- Scalable design systems
- Long-term digital planning
- Partners who understand the complexities of healthcare
These are now the basic requirements to ensure accurate, patient-centered digital experiences.
Instead of more pressure and tools, organizations need greater clarity, steadier structure, and less chaos.