Introduction

I’ve always had an empathic sensibility even before I realized it was an important characteristic for an anthropologist. If a fellow student sat alone at lunch, I joined them. If someone was bullied, I defended them. In every aspect of my life, I’m genuinely concerned about what other people think, feel, and need—it’s a blessing and a curse.

My college journey began with the study of art and art history despite my curiosity in a myriad of subjects. I loved art and enjoyed history, so the combination of these interests made the most sense to me at the time. It’s safe to say that I was less than settled in college, and I shape-shifted more than once as I explored the opportunities afforded to me in higher education. As my majors, minors, and emphases evolved, one thing never wavered: my passion for learning about the world around me. Thankfully, I landed on anthropology as a primary area of focus in school and it’s there where a foundation was built for my career as an entrepreneur.

I confess, my love for anthropology was a happy accident. I enrolled in an anthropology class to fulfill a credit need—not knowing what anthropology was—or that the course would change my entire outlook on life. One day, a professor, Dr. Miles, gave a presentation about a research study she was leading on apes and sign language at the university. In the stories and visuals she shared, she and Chantek, an orangutan, used sign language to communicate and connect on a level that mesmerized me.

Not even twenty-four hours passed before I was in Dr. Miles’ office. I wanted to learn everything I could about Chantek, and I was determined to be a part of the research study in any way possible. Dr. Miles kindly listened to my expression of interest and then asked if I knew American sign language. Surprisingly, I did. I explained to her that I had a friend who was deaf when I was a child, and I taught myself sign language as a Boy Scout so that my friend and I could communicate. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough—I needed to be fluent and certified for qualification. With no further direction or explanation, she ushered me out.

I returned a few months later with a certificate for a completed sign language course in my hand. With that single certificate, I joined the study and changed the course of my future.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I’d found my calling. I studied linguistics and language acquisition in nonhuman primates, and I learned the universal importance of gestures and body language in communication. I also explored how apes interpret the idea of currency and even how they recall locations and practice deception.

For the first time in my life, I was passionate and focused. I changed my major to anthropology, which confused my entire family who had dedicated their careers to business and journalism. My grandfather (a newspaperman) was fond of telling his friends that they could easily spot me on campus most any time of day. I was the one with a monkey on my back. “The one without the tail,” he would say. Of course, I always corrected him that Chantek was an ape, not a monkey, and that apes don’t have tails.

One of the most important things I learned from my days studying anthropology and my time with Chantek was the meaning and value of empathy. I discovered how it works at the most fundamental level of connection between two beings. I never truly understood empathy or its significance to me until my studies shifted to anthropology.

The Impact of Empathy

I first read about empathy and cultural understanding in an article discussing anthropological fieldwork. It was a rather controversial article by Clifford Geertz, which explored ethnography—the study of humans in their natural and lived environment. It caught my attention that a focus of study existed where researchers observed individual people to discern each person’s reality. Through careful observation, ethnographers can study the intricacies of human social behavior, but more than that, they can achieve a better understanding of what motivates that behavior. In the article, the anthropologist discussed how leveraging observation and empathy can lead to a better understanding of the culture and community in which the person was immersed.

I was more than intrigued—I was hooked. These lessons became the basis for my understanding of the world and the people in it. Not only did I grasp the significance of empathy, but I finally understood how empathy related to the people I came in contact with.

When I left college and worked as an assistant elementary school teacher, I used what I learned about empathy and human behavior to engage with the schoolchildren on their level. As a bartender, I found myself using empathy as I served drinks and carefully listened to stories of hardship and glory. When I started True North, my first healthcare marketing agency, empathy was at the core of our company culture and business philosophy.

It was at True North that I became keenly aware of two truths central to my identity and personal mindset. The first was that no matter the industry, we as business leaders must strive to better understand and be more relevant to the needs of others in order to serve them to our fullest capacity. The second was that the people we work with carry as much importance as the clients we serve.

Now I understand that empathy is at the very core of who I am—it’s at the core of everything I do in both my public and private life. Above all, empathy provides the cornerstone for the work I do in building businesses that are intent on developing patient-centered solutions in healthcare.

I care about people with both emotional and cognitive empathy, and I appreciate it when others care about me. Empathy serves a basic human need for validation and is a powerful tool for healthcare professionals interested in empowering successful outcomes—clinically or financially.

True North was a strong, successful company when I sold it. Our success was because of the human connections we shared with one another as co-workers and with the clients we were fortunate enough to work with on a daily basis. I took this approach and used it as the foundation for LIFT, a marketing and design firm focused on the healthcare space and the patients within it. I sought to leverage empathic concern in healthcare marketing—to listen to patients rather than speak to them. Empathy can break down barriers in almost every setting and circumstance, and I wanted LIFT and our clients to use it as our greatest resource.

Without my research and studies in anthropology, none of this would have been possible. Studying anthropology and design showed me how empathy could be used to understand the human condition at an unprecedented level. As a healthcare marketing strategist, I’ve learned how valuable empathy is in my work. Empathy should be used in business—but it must be used in healthcare.

The Empathy Triad

In order to understand the value of empathy in healthcare, it’s important to first define it. Google and Merriam-Webster will tell you that empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. To better illustrate and expand on this definition, I think empathy is best defined within the context of the empathy triad. The empathy triad is a nice way of framing and evaluating how you view empathy and your relative strength or needs in each of three areas—cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathic concern.

Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand another person’s perspective by putting yourself in their shoes. Emotional empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. Empathic concern is the ability to sense what another person needs from you.

This gets to the heart of patient-centeredness and is the very reason we use ethnography for healthcare marketing strategy and solution design.

Providers need to recognize that there’s a reason why their patients do the things they do. It’s not uncommon for healthcare professionals to get frustrated with people when they fall short of expectations. Some providers may even give up on difficult patients or stakeholders. Because of this, patients and caregivers can often get lost in the system. This is an unnecessary outcome and one that can be avoided when providers engage, educate, and empower their patients and those who care for them through an empathic lens.

Empathy will break down barriers and build better relationships, which will foster better care and result in healthier communities and better outcomes.

The Business of Healthcare

Without empathy in the business of healthcare, our patients are not the only ones getting lost in the system. Oddly enough, as healthcare marketers, providers, and researchers, we’re also lost in the system right alongside the patients we’ve abandoned. We’ve lost sight of the significance of the patient in our development of effective therapies and meaningful communication strategies. We’ve failed to see that the answers we seek as marketers often come from the patients and related stakeholders themselves.

Genuine patient...