WEDI Winter Forum 2026 (Hybrid) : The Promise and Reality of Health IT in Improving the Patient Journey

A new, hybrid event, spotlighting how regulations, technology, and innovation is improving the patient experience. 

Physical Location:

Sharp Prebys Innovation and Education Center, 8695 Spectrum Center Blvd, San Diego, CA

WEDI’s Winter Forum brings together the nation’s leading healthcare innovators, policymakers, providers, payers, technology organizations, and patient advocates to explore how health IT policy, data-centric technology, and digital innovation are reshaping the patient experience. This year’s forum will spotlight the tools, standards, and strategies that are enabling a more connected, transparent, and patient-empowered healthcare ecosystem.

Through a series of expert-led discussions, attendees will examine how emerging federal policies and regulations—such as 0057, HTI-4, and evolving interoperability rules—are setting the stage for more person-centered design and data access. Sessions on AI, automation, and innovative digital tools will showcase how organizations are standardizing care, personalizing patient outreach, and reducing administrative burdens. The forum will also delve into the technologies giving patients greater control over their health information, including portals, apps, APIs, and real-world examples of interoperability in action.

The program will highlight practical approaches for streamlining the patient journey, from modernizing prior authorization and designing intuitive digital front doors to improving price transparency and eligibility processes. Finally, the event will explore the strategic, equity-focused, and future-oriented dimensions of patient experience—featuring conversations on accessibility, measuring what truly matters, and the innovations and policies needed to move healthcare forward.

Designed for leaders who want to drive meaningful change, WEDI’s Winter Forum is a unique opportunity to engage with the people and ideas shaping the next generation of patient-centered care.

Our themes over the 1.5 day event will include:

• Policy and Regulation: Setting the Stage 
  • Beyond Compliance: HTI-4 and CMS -0057F Improving the Patient Journey
  • Designing Health IT with People at the Center
• Innovation and Emerging Tech for Improved Patient Engagement and Empowerment 
  • AI and Automation to Improve the Patient Experience
  • Standardizing Care, Personalizing Outreach, and Reducing Administrative Burdens
  • Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
  • Comprehensive Patient Data Through Apps, RPM
  • HL7 Da Vinci. Burden Reduction and Patient Empowerment 
• Data Access and Patient Empowerment 
  • Patient Portals, Apps and APIs; Incorporating the patient voice in development and design
  • Access APIs in Action
  • Interoperability for Patients
• Streamlining the Patient Journey
  • Modernizing Prior Authorization
  • Designing Digital Front Doors
  • Price Transparency
  • Patient Experience through a UM Protocol
  • Patient Advocate Panel- What IS Working? What do you Need?
• Strategy, Equity and Future Focus
  • Patient Experience and Health Accessibility
  • Measuring What Matters
  • What's Next: Policy, Innovation, and the Future

Host Hotel Information

The Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Central has a room block for attendees:

8651 Spectrum Center Blvd, San Diego, CA (a very short walk across the parking lot to the Sharp Prebys Center)

A special group rate of $175.00 per night is available until January 31, 2026 by clicking the link below:

Book your group rate for WEDI's Winter Forum

VIEW THE FORUM AGENDA BELOW AND HERE (PDF)

(Agenda subject to change. Time Listed are Pacific)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2026

8:30am- 8:45am, WEDI Welcome

• Robert Tennant, WEDI Executive Director

 8:45am- 9:00am, Patient Exp WG Intro

• Emma Andelson, Lead Policy Analyst, American Medical Association, WEDI Patient Experience Workgroup Co-Chair
• Anna Hyde, Vice President, Advocacy and Access, Arthritis Foundation, WEDI Patient Experience Workgroup Co-Chair

 9:00am- 9:30am, The Federal Vision for Health IT: Empowering Patients Through Data and Technology

• Steven Posnack, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, ASTP/ONC

 9:30am- 10:30am, Vendor Spotlights 

 10:30am- 11:00am, Advocate Panel: Policy & Regulation: Setting the Stage

Patient advocacy organizations play a critical role in shaping how health IT policy and regulation translate into real-world patient experiences. Representatives from the Arthritis Foundation, ALS Association, and the National Rural Health Association will share perspectives on how current and emerging health IT policies affect access, care coordination, and engagement for the populations they serve. This panel will highlight common challenges and opportunities across diverse patient communities and set the stage for broader discussions on how policy, data, and technology can better support patients, caregivers, and advocates alike

• Rich Brennan, Vice President, Federal Affairs, ALS Association
• Anna Hyde, Vice President, Advocacy and Access, Arthritis Foundation
• Marguerite Peterseim, Government Affairs and Policy Coordinator, National Rural Health Association

11:00am- 11:15am, AM Break

11:15am- 12:00pm, Access APIs in Motion: Data Access & Patient Empowerment

As patient access to health data continues to expand, APIs are playing a central role in enabling transparency, choice, and engagement. Representatives from three payer organizations will discuss how access APIs are improving the patient experience by making data easier to access, use, and share across care journeys. The session will also highlight complementary, data-centric initiatives across the health IT community that are helping empower patients to actively engage with and manage their health information.

• Robert Oakley, Strategy & Interoperability Lead, Physician Innovation, Evernorth
• Nancy Bevin, Director, Provider Connectivity, Medica
• Ron Wampler, Executive Director, Interoperability, Aetna, a CVS Health Company

12:00pm- 12:45pm, Lunch

12:45pm- 1:30pm, Modernizing Demographic Data Standards to Improve Access and Outcomes

Health plans and providers invest significant resources in collecting patient demographic data to understand how and why health and outcomes vary by population. Yet, the data is often incomplete or inaccurate. Learn about the national, multi-stakeholder Demographic Data Element Modernization (DEMo) Initiative and results from patient and clinician testing of the proposed data standards. Gain insights into how to join the effort and help to advance interoperability across the ecosystem.

• Danielle Lloyd, Vice President of Private Market Innovations and Quality Initiatives, AHIP
• Rebekah Angove, PhD, Executive Director, Patient Advocate Foundation’s Patient Insight Institute

 1:15pm- 1:45pm, From Insight to Intervention: Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities in Asian American Enrollees

California’s Asian and Asian American populations experience significant behavioral health disparities driven by stigma, lack of culturally sensitive care, systemic access barriers, and underdiagnosis. With 6.8 million Asian Americans—17.2% of the state’s population1—this session explores how Covered California is addressing these challenges through innovative, data-driven strategies aimed at advancing health equity

• Taylor Priestly, Director of Health Equity & Quality Transformation, Health Equity Officer, Covered California

1:45pm- 2:30pm, Closing the Loop: Integrating 211 and Healthcare Data to Support Whole-Person Care

• Alana Kalinowski, Interoperability Solutions Architect, San Diego 211

2:30pm- 2:45pm, PM Break

2:30pm- 3:00pm, Leveraging Innovation & Emerging Tech (AI) to Improve Patient Engagement

• Speakers TBA

3:00pm- 3:45pm, Digital Innovation Transforming Ambulatory Access

This session explores the cutting edge of digital tools that are reshaping how patients access care delivery. From self-scheduling and intelligent automation to virtual assistants and bi-directional communication, learn how leading health systems are leveraging technology to reduce friction and enhance patient experience.

Speakers:

• Elizabeth Johnson, Vice President, Patient Access Contact Centers, Emory Healthcare
• Tara Mahoney , Vice President, Health Care Practice, Geneys
• Elizabeth Woodcock, DrPH, MBA, Executive Director, Patient Access Collaborative

3:45pm- 4:30pm, When AI Becomes a Partner in Patient Discovery: How Conversational Tools Are Transforming the Diagnostic Journey

What happens when patients and caregivers are empowered with AI as a thinking partner in their search for answers? This session explores how conversational AI tools are beginning to reshape the diagnostic journey—not by replacing clinicians, but by augmenting patient curiosity, research, and advocacy. Through anecdotal accounts of patients who used AI to synthesize symptoms, explore possible root causes, and ultimately accelerate a rare disease diagnosis, this discussion highlights the emerging role of AI in patient-led discovery and engagement.

• Linda Macomber, Professor of Practice, National University, 2025 Life Fellow Awardee, HIMSS

 4:30pm- 5:15pm, Putting Data to Work for Patients: A Data-Centric Approach to Exchange

Connecting for Better Health will highlight its work advancing data exchange through the California Data Exchange Framework and how these efforts are improving patient access to health information. This session will explore how a data-centric approach to exchange supports care coordination, enables more informed decision-making, and reinforces the organization’s mission to leverage data in ways that meaningfully improve patient experience and overall health outcomes.

• Timi Leslie, Executive Director, Connecting for Better Health

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026 

8:30am- 9:00am, Improving Data Accessibility & Improving Care Coordination

• Paul Wilder, Executive Director, CommonWell Alliance

 9:00am- 9:30am, TBA 

 9:30am- 10:15am, No Surprises Act & Price Transparency Updates

• WEDI No Surprises Act Task Group Co-Chairs
  • Stanley Nachimson, Principal, Nachimson Advisors
  • Beth Davis, Senior Manager, Veradigm Payerpath
  • Terrence Cunningham, Director of Administrative Simplification Policy, American Hospital Association
• Danielle Lloyd, Vice President of Private Market Innovations and Quality Initiatives, AHIP
• Anna Hyde, Vice President, Advocacy and Access, Arthritis Foundation

10:15am- 11:00am, From Local Exchange to Statewide Impact: The SCHIO–Manifest MedEx Model for Whole-Person Data Sharing

Discover how SCHIO and Manifest MedEx are building a more connected, person-centered data ecosystem for California. Through their new affiliation, the organizations are creating a statewide infrastructure that brings together clinical, social, behavioral, and claims data to support whole-person care. Attendees will gain insights into how this work improves coordination, equity, and the patient experience.

Manifest MedEx and the Serving Communities Health Information Organization (SCHIO) have entered a strategic affiliation. This affiliation will help communities in Santa Cruz, the Bay area, and across the state get critical health, behavioral, and social data from both networks to better coordinate whole-person care and optimize health and wellness.

This collaboration marks a major step toward advancing comprehensive data sharing across California to ensure communities receive the care wherever and whenever needed.

• Adam Harrison, Chief Business Development Officer, Manifest MedEx
• Dan Chavez, Executive Director, Serving Communities Health Information Organization SCHIO

11:00am- 11:30am, TBA

11:30am- 12:00pm, TBA