Leah Sparks: Health systems and plans are now willing to take a leap of faith for digital patient experiences

In this episode, Leah Sparks discusses how she founded Wildflower Health in 2012 as a digital health platform to help women in their pregnancies, after experiencing the difficulties of navigating the healthcare system during her first pregnancy. Leah believes that digital adoption in healthcare often needs to start with simple use cases with near term returns (the short story). Although technology risks are high in healthcare, Leah encourages health systems to remain focused on the long story of needing to transform healthcare by investing in the right opportunities to create a healthcare experience that is personalized for consumers. Wildflower Health has raised venture capital from leading health systems such as Providence Health and is considered a leading “FemTech” startup. Leah points out that while women are primary users of her platform, they are also the Chief Health Officers of their homes and influence 80% of all healthcare decisions for the entire population.