Trust is a Team Sport: Reflections on HMPS 2026

It’s that time of year again! VP of Growth Kristy Roldan and MDRG founder Sondra Brown just returned from HMPS 2026, the Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit.

It shouldn’t surprise our loyal readers that not only did Kristy and Sondra attend HMPS to learn more about the big issues affecting the healthcare industry, but they also looked for opportunities for market research to step in and help.

This year’s agenda was heavy on trust, including but not limited to the two sessions our team led. The biggest thing we learned is that this topic is still growing—and these conversations are not over.

Here is a recap of HMPS through Kristy and Sondra’s eyes. To learn more about the work we’ve done around trust, find a link to two of our recent reports on trust at the end of this blog!

Sondra speaking at HMPS26

Last year, AI was shifting from buzzword to practical tool. Where does the conversation stand now? 

Kristy Roldan (KR): "There was definitely more optimism this year. Last year felt more tactical because AI seemed like a looming figure—people were scrambling to understand it and worried about job security and data safety. Now it's more activated. People are sharing good use cases and trading stories about how they're actually using AI."

Sondra Brown (SB): “Agreed. Last year felt like doom and gloom around access issues, too, but this year felt more optimistic overall. People can see a path through the challenges ahead."

What topic felt bigger this year than last year?

SB: “Trust. Even if it didn't fit into a presentation, people figured out a way to put it in there. There's an acknowledgment that this is not a short-term solution. It's going to be a long play."

KR: “Trust is a big word that people are defining in many different ways—PR, reputation, how you activate against trust to make consumers feel health systems are trustworthy, and how that drives loyalty."

What topic felt less important, less urgent, or less talked about than last year?

KR: “Access is still a major problem, but it doesn't feel like the house is on fire anymore. It's not that access has become unimportant; it's just less urgent. I wonder if access is falling under the trust umbrella as one vertical underneath that bigger idea."

SB: “It's not that access isn’t an issue—it very much is. But the attitude shifted from 'oh my God, we have an access problem, we have to talk about it' to 'okay, yes, we have an access problem. Let's stop talking about it and go solve it.' People have acknowledged the reality and are moving toward problem-solving."

Where do you see the biggest gap between what healthcare marketers want to do and what they are realistically able to do?

KR: "Healthcare marketers want consumers to use more digital tools and AI so they can be more efficient and provide personalization. They're succeeding to a degree, but there's a lot more to be done. There's also pressure to show how marketing specifically brings in revenue in dollar amounts, and that's still somewhat opaque."

SB: "Creating a consumer-first digital experience. People expect to go online and do everything they need to do online, but hospital websites were built around hospital operations, not around what consumers want. It's so problematic and difficult within that structure. It's simply not a consumer-first digital experience."

How is HMPS itself evolving?

SB: "It's becoming much more of a strategic conversation. It's pushing to ask what the big thematic things are and what to do about it. The content is heavily curated and timely with what people are thinking about today. That's a real differentiator between HMPS and other healthcare conferences."

KR: "And with that, the networking is evolving. There's also much more transparency. Nobody is gatekeeping anything."

What session, speaker, or moment was your favorite?

KR: "The session about senior-level executives demystifying their marketing mishaps ‘Ctrl + Alt + Redeem: True Confessions of Marketing Fails and Fixes.’ People were really open about the idea that these mistakes happen and it's okay. Hearing that from senior executives was important: We're in the business of saving lives, but we'll still make mistakes."

From a market research lens, where did you hear problems or concerns that MDRG is well-positioned to help solve?

SB: "MDRG can help solve for being the consumer voice and continuing to bring that voice forward as the industry evolves to become more consumer-first. Think about non-traditional healthcare companies built from a consumer-first perspective, like women's health companies solving for menopause. MDRG can help solve for that kind of experience."

KR: "Bringing forward the customer voice needs to be face forward. Consumers are making more decisions, their expectations are growing, and they're up against a lot. If we don't continue to understand those things, our health system partners will be left behind."

You both spoke during HMPS. Was there anything from your sessions that made you think or revealed something about the industry that surprised you?

SB: "What surprised me is just the alignment around how we really have to tackle these trust issues. Everyone is aligned around that. There were substantive conversations ranging from bigger ideas to research about how eroding digital experience impacts trust. The real recognition is that we have a significant problem we all need to rally around and solve together—it's multifaceted, not easy, very difficult, but critical to solve."

KR: "In market research, people are still worried about the next evolution of AI. There's skepticism about virtual audiences and AI trying to portray humans...People feel that might be a bridge too far. We also got questions about whether AI will homogenize creative and research, and whether analysts will miss doing in-depth analysis. These conversations revealed how much people are grappling with AI's impact on the work itself."

MDRG’s Recent Work on Trust:

1. In coordination with SearchStax, our 2026 exploration of digital touchpoints on trust: Win or Lose Patients at the Digital Front Door: How website experience and site search drive trust, access, and patient acquisition
2. A 2025 MDRG proprietary research study focusing on healthcare leaders’ perceptions: What's the State of Trust in Healthcare? Expert Reflections on Shifts in Patient Trust in a Healthcare Setting

Want to talk with us more about how market research can help tackle the trust issue for your healthcare company? Contact us today!