Technology is Reshaping Trust in Health Care – Consider Humanity, Transparency, Capability, and Reliability
“Trust is like blood pressure. It’s silent, vital to good health, and if abused, it can be deadly.” So wrote Frank Sonnenberg, prolific author and commentator about morals and life. We can broaden Sonnenberg’s observation on trust beyond “health” itself to healthcare. Trust is indeed vital to healthcare, and to the health care industry, we learn from research from Deloitte discussed in the paper, Trust drives consumer value and adoption in life sciences and health care. Deloitte assessed consumers’ ratings of health care delivery systems (hospitals, providers) and life science companies (pharma, biotech, med-tech) across four drivers of trust: Humanity, assessing
Distrust is the default, insularity is our mindset: The Edelman Trust Barometer in 2026
ss Last year’s “shared reality” was a culture of trust and a crisis of grievance: this year, it’s trust and insularity, we learn from the Edelman Trust Barometer for 2026, launched this week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Here are the Top 10 findings from the annual study, which Edelman conducted among nearly 34,000 citizens in 28 countries in October and November 2025: Insularity undermines trust The mass class divide deepens Nationalism is widespread Optimism for the future wanes Personal networks fill a void left by
In the U.S., Belief and Trust in Science and Scientists is Tied to Political Party and Education
Most Americans believe it’s very important for the nation to lead in scientific achievements. But twice as many Democrats as Republications, 65% versus 32%, say the U.S. is losing ground in science innovations. The Pew Research Center asks and answers the Do Americans Think the Country Is Losing or Gaining Ground in Science? And the answer is, “millions of people do think so.” The Pew team polled 5,111 U.S. adults in late October 2025 for this research. There are a few political chasms related to science-trust in the U.S. that are important
One of the best aspects of my work is collaborating across the health/care ecosystem to address how health citizens can deal with health care costs and and care for families. I'm grateful to have collaborated with Fidelity on their research into this issue, which you can access at the link here.
I'm gratified to be named on this updated list of 16 women's voices who are shaping health care. The curator of the list, Dorlee Michaeli, asked the question: "If someone wanted a smarter healthcare LinkedIn feed tomorrow, who should they follow today?" Glad to be one of these voices.
I’m celebrating America’s 250th birthday both patriotically and professionally, honored that the NLM included my 2010 paper, “How Smartphones Are Changing Healthcare for Consumers and Patients” as one of 250 items curated for the digital archive of 250 Years of American Medicine.