Member since November 2024
Gwen Mayes is a health policy expert, patient advocate, author, and speaker transforming how healthcare systems engage patients. With nearly three decades in Washington, DC across government, nonprofits, and industry, she brings a rare 360-degree perspective on policy, regulation, and patient experience.
As founder of GwenCo Health, Gwen equips patients—especially those with rare and chronic conditions—to influence policy and partner with providers on equal footing. She is known for elevating real-world patient experience alongside data to drive more effective, human-centered healthcare decisions.
Gwen has held senior leadership roles with the Surgeon General’s office, the National Patient Advocate Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ABIOMED, and Bayer. Her work challenges healthcare leaders to move beyond “data alone” and design systems where the patient voice is central to better outcomes.
Gwen's passion is to coach patients with rare and chronic diseases on how to participate in healthcare policy formation. Having sat at 'every seat at the table' in Washington, DC to develop new drugs, legislation, regulations, guidelines, and policy, Gwen knows first-hand the value a patient's lived experience brings to policy formation when coupled with scientific data and statistics.
The first thing a cardiologist told me in my 20s when I was diagnosed with a rare, genetic heart condition, "you will have a shortened life expectancy." Now, 65 and living my best life, I bring decades of professional expertise in health policy formation and personal experiences as a person living with a chronic illness to coach patients to become patient 'activists' and share their stories publicly.
I didn’t set out to build a career around patient engagement—I lived my way into it. After decades working across government, healthcare, and communications, I began to see a gap no amount of policy or data could fill: the lived reality of patients was missing from the decisions shaping their care. Living with a rare heart condition myself, I understood that healthcare is not just clinical—it’s deeply personal, affecting identity, relationships, and daily life. That realization led me to focus on helping patients translate their real-world experiences into stories that do more than share—they influence. Today, as a Patient Story Coach, I work with individuals from all walks of life to use their voices to inform policy, strengthen provider relationships, and ultimately improve the healthcare system from the inside out.
My mantra: we are all 'more persons than patients'.
In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, Gwen Mayes challenges a fundamental question at the heart of modern healthcare: is it touch or technology that drives better outcomes? Her answer is clear—you’ll need both. Drawing from her lived experience with chronic illness and her work as the author of More Person Than Patient, Mayes reframes the patient not as a passive recipient of care, but as an essential partner with expertise grounded in real-world experience. She makes the case that when patients are empowered to stand on equal footing with providers—bringing their lived insights alongside clinical data—healthcare becomes not only more effective, but more humane.
This talk offers a powerful roadmap for healthcare leaders, clinicians, payers, and innovators seeking to bridge the growing divide between data-driven decision-making and compassionate care. Mayes explores how systems can integrate patient voice as a form of actionable intelligence, ensuring that technology—including AI—enhances rather than replaces human connection. With a focus on redesigning care models, communication strategies, and decision-making processes, she equips audiences to build a future where facts and empathy coexist.
Gwen Mayes delivers a compelling and deeply human call to action for the future of healthcare—one that places patient storytelling at the center of innovation, design, and trust. Drawing from her lived experience with chronic illness and her work as an advocate and author of More Person Than Patient, Mayes challenges healthcare leaders, clinicians, payers, and health tech innovators to move beyond data alone and truly understand the real-world emotional, psychological, and practical complexities patients navigate every day.
At a time when artificial intelligence and digital transformation are rapidly reshaping healthcare, Mayes addresses a growing and often unspoken risk: the erosion of trust between patients and providers. She explores how AI, when implemented without empathy and context, can distance rather than connect—but when guided by authentic patient insight, can become a powerful tool for restoring humanity in medicine. This talk equips audiences with a new lens and practical framework for integrating patient voice into strategy, innovation, and care models—positioning storytelling as a bridge between technology and trust, and redefining what it means to deliver truly patient-centered care.
The first thing a cardiologist told me in my 20s when I was diagnosed with a rare, genetic heart condition, "you will have a shortened life expectancy." Now, 65 and living my best life, I bring decades of professional expertise in health policy formation and personal experiences as a person living with a chronic illness to coach patients to become patient 'activists' and share their stories publicly.
I didn’t set out to build a career around patient engagement—I lived my way into it. After decades working across government, healthcare, and communications, I began to see a gap no amount of policy or data could fill: the lived reality of patients was missing from the decisions shaping their care. Living with a rare heart condition myself, I understood that healthcare is not just clinical—it’s deeply personal, affecting identity, relationships, and daily life. That realization led me to focus on helping patients translate their real-world experiences into stories that do more than share—they influence. Today, as a Patient Story Coach, I work with individuals from all walks of life to use their voices to inform policy, strengthen provider relationships, and ultimately improve the healthcare system from the inside out.
My mantra: we are all 'more persons than patients'.
In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, Gwen Mayes challenges a fundamental question at the heart of modern healthcare: is it touch or technology that drives better outcomes? Her answer is clear—you’ll need both. Drawing from her lived experience with chronic illness and her work as the author of More Person Than Patient, Mayes reframes the patient not as a passive recipient of care, but as an essential partner with expertise grounded in real-world experience. She makes the case that when patients are empowered to stand on equal footing with providers—bringing their lived insights alongside clinical data—healthcare becomes not only more effective, but more humane.
This talk offers a powerful roadmap for healthcare leaders, clinicians, payers, and innovators seeking to bridge the growing divide between data-driven decision-making and compassionate care. Mayes explores how systems can integrate patient voice as a form of actionable intelligence, ensuring that technology—including AI—enhances rather than replaces human connection. With a focus on redesigning care models, communication strategies, and decision-making processes, she equips audiences to build a future where facts and empathy coexist.
Gwen Mayes delivers a compelling and deeply human call to action for the future of healthcare—one that places patient storytelling at the center of innovation, design, and trust. Drawing from her lived experience with chronic illness and her work as an advocate and author of More Person Than Patient, Mayes challenges healthcare leaders, clinicians, payers, and health tech innovators to move beyond data alone and truly understand the real-world emotional, psychological, and practical complexities patients navigate every day.
At a time when artificial intelligence and digital transformation are rapidly reshaping healthcare, Mayes addresses a growing and often unspoken risk: the erosion of trust between patients and providers. She explores how AI, when implemented without empathy and context, can distance rather than connect—but when guided by authentic patient insight, can become a powerful tool for restoring humanity in medicine. This talk equips audiences with a new lens and practical framework for integrating patient voice into strategy, innovation, and care models—positioning storytelling as a bridge between technology and trust, and redefining what it means to deliver truly patient-centered care.
