Why Healthcare’s Future Depends on Trust: A HUB25 Session with Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson
What happens when the leaders who shape our healthcare systems become the people who must rely on them? This is the deeply personal and profoundly important question Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson explores in her general session at NRC Health’s Human Understanding Beyond | HUB25: Three Cancers, One Critical Moment: Why Healthcare’s Future Depends on Trust.
As a physician, bioethicist, entrepreneur, and mother, Dr. Swanson has spent her life at the crossroads of clinical care, public communication, and digital health innovation. But it was her lived experiences—as a caregiver for her mother, a mother to a child with cancer, and a patient herself—that reshaped how she views the healthcare system and its most essential currency: trust.
This keynote will bring attendees face to face with the fragility and resilience of healthcare’s human core. Through emotionally resonant stories from both sides of the stethoscope, Dr. Swanson will invite HUB25 attendees to confront the ways in which trust is built, broken, and—when we’re lucky—rebuilt during our most vulnerable moments.
Save the Date: October 15–17 in Orlando
Join us in Orlando, Florida, for HUB25. This event brings together healthcare leaders from across the nation to explore the future of patient experience, trust, and innovation.
Don’t miss the chance to hear Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson’s compelling general session and many other inspiring presentations designed to empower and transform healthcare. Register today!
Why This Session Matters Now
At a time when patients are inundated with digital tools, AI-powered diagnoses, and fast-evolving care-delivery models, it’s easy to forget that healthcare still begins and ends with human connection. In this powerful keynote, Dr. Swanson will surface urgent questions that every healthcare leader should be asking:
- How do we ensure that patients truly understand their choices when algorithms quietly shape their care?
- What does informed consent mean in an era where technology mediates nearly every interaction?
- How do healthcare professionals navigate being both caregivers and care receivers without losing faith in the systems they serve?
In the face of medical uncertainty and systemic strain, Dr. Swanson will remind attendees that trust is not a byproduct of excellent care—it is its very foundation. Her stories—by turns harrowing and hopeful—will illuminate how every touchpoint matters, and how the future of healthcare hinges on our willingness to lead with empathy, transparency, and accountability.
Learning with Heart and Depth
Attendees of this session will come away with practical insights and a renewed sense of mission. Dr. Swanson will challenge healthcare leaders to:
- Reframe trust as infrastructure: Understand how even brief clinical interactions influence long-term patient engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes.
- Navigate digital ethics: Explore the complexities of informed consent in a system increasingly influenced by AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making.
- Reconnect with the profession’s purpose: Embrace the dual identity of healthcare as both a science and a calling that demands both courage and compassion.
- Lead through vulnerability: Learn how personal adversity can become a catalyst for authentic leadership and meaningful, human-centered innovation.
Meet the Speaker: Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson
Dr. Swanson is no stranger to innovation—or to the humanity at the heart of medicine. As co-founder and CEO of Wild Health Media, she continues to push the boundaries of how we share and shape health information. Prior to this role, she served as the Chief of Digital Innovation at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she spearheaded efforts to improve patient engagement and technology integration.
She was also Chief Medical Officer at Before Brands, where she led the design and implementation of a groundbreaking virtual clinical trial involving over 1,500 infants, merging EMR data with online parenting communities to reimagine clinical study recruitment. Dr. Swanson’s work has consistently centered on making science accessible, transparent, and trustworthy.
She is the author of Mama Doc Medicine, a recipient of the Mom’s Choice Gold Award, and a widely respected speaker on topics ranging from pediatric health to ethical innovation in digital care. With an M.D. and a master’s in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a teaching background through Teach for America, Dr. Swanson brings a rare combination of clinical insight, ethical rigor, and human compassion to her work.
A Session That Will Stay with You
Three Cancers, One Critical Moment is more than a keynote—it’s a call to action. For every clinician who’s ever hesitated before delivering hard news, for every executive who’s tried to balance operational efficiency with patient dignity, and for every leader grappling with the ethics of emerging tech, this session offers clarity and purpose.
Wendy Sue Swanson’s message is clear: Trust is not a soft metric—it is the bedrock of every successful healthcare interaction. At HUB25, she’ll show us how to protect and strengthen it, not just for our patients, but also for ourselves and the systems we steward.
Don’t miss this unforgettable general session at HUB25.
Join us as Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson brings stories, science, and soul together in one of the most anticipated sessions of the year.
