A Global Commitment to Access: Introducing “Ask Beryl”

by Jason A. Wolf, Ph.D., CPXP

At The Beryl Institute we have stated with clear intention: “We lead forward with an unwavering global-centric focus.” As the global community of healthcare professionals and experience champions committed to transforming the human experience in healthcare, we have always had a core purpose of bringing people together from around the world for networking and professional development opportunities by holding a safe, neutral space to exchange ideas and learn from others.

We have always had a core purpose of bringing people together from around the world for networking and professional development opportunities by holding a safe, neutral space to exchange ideas and learn from others.

We have underlined this stance with a set of key commitments I shared earlier this year.

• We affirm the best in experience ideas originate from a diverse range of places and organizations around the world.
• We strive every moment to actively identify, support, and learn from those people and places that may often be overlooked.
• We stand for the power of local voices and work relentlessly to foster the development of regional conversations and communities that honor cultures, processes, and systems.

These commitments are the essential building blocks of creating a community that is grounded in connection and innovation. One that does not seek to promote one model, but rather strives daily to invite, engage, and learn from a breadth of perspectives and solutions focused on transforming human experience around the world. But to achieve an environment that honors, seeks, and elevates diverse, often overlooked, local voices requires one more commitment.

It is grounded in a critical and foundational effort: “We commit to access for all, in all we do, by ensuring easy and meaningful paths to engagement.”

We commit to access for all, in all we do, by ensuring easy and meaningful paths to engagement.

This focus on access is at the heart of all we do at the Institute. From our very beginning we have led with a community first mindset that has worked consistently to celebrate the voices of our members and to ensure our information, learning, and connections reach the world. Almost half of all we have ever created together remains open access to all who seek the information and ideas they need. This has been fueled by a spirit of generosity expressed by countless members of the community.

Access is no small task. It requires intention and broad action. We have worked with our community members to understand what this means to you and in doing so have framed an approach focused beyond the open access resources on our site and even the over 700 articles in Patient Experience Journal (PXJ) accessible to all. We are focusing access in three main efforts. They include:

• Access delivered through language. We have worked to make resources from the Institute available in many of the world’s primary languages. You can translate the website and find papers in many of these core languages.
• Access based on timing. We are working to ensure information from the Institute reaches you when you need it at times relevant to your interest and working hours. Honoring where people are in the world and getting information to them when most relevant is a key commitment.
• Access made available through cost. We will soon be introducing a new model of access via reduced investment levels for low- and lower-middle-income countries. This focus on expanding our community by ensuring people can afford to be a part of it, is a critical strategic value in all we do.

These ideas are not new; they are critical levers that can ensure we as an organization are responsive to community needs. Our commitment is to ensure we are accessible to you, wherever you stand in the world. But we realized access comes with one more critical element:

• Access made possible through ease. Convenience is a key consumer desire; our community is no different. As we have grown our content – due to sheer volume of what is now available – our resources have become more challenging to sort through, review, summarize, plan from, and apply. We recognized a need to help in an intentional way to link these commitments to access all together.

In that light, we are excited that in just days we will be introducing an amazing new resource for our community – Ask Beryl. Ask Beryl is a highly interactive AI agent you can engage in finding resources, asking questions and so much more. In this early beta phase of Ask Beryl a few key things will already be available.

• More than a search engine, you can pose questions to Ask Beryl like you would any other AI Agent. For example, she can help you build a 90-day start up patient experience strategy (and put it into a slide deck and/or PDF document), consider the key elements of an effective volunteer program, identify roadblocks to establish a successful language services effort, and much more.
• Unlike other AI agents, Ask Beryl is the only source that can access member-only resources to expand your inquiry and sought after solutions. Yes, she is open to everyone to use globally but she does support members in going deeper into our community content for more rich and comprehensive solutions.
• Ask Beryl is created to meet you where you are. Accessible in 26 languages, you can ask and receive responses in your native language, including any plans she creates for you. While not every publication or piece of content on the Institute site may be fully translated, Ask Beryl can ensure the parts most relevant to you are accessible in your language.

I hope you will dive into Ask Beryl soon and share your experiences and ideas that emerge as a result. I am excited to see her live in the days ahead.

A global commitment to access is not something new to us at The Beryl Institute. But in reflecting on how we can be better together and more effectively serve our community needs there were clear opportunities to reaffirm and elevate our commitment to access overall. These opportunities are ideas I believe we can all take to heart as we strive to ensure the best in experience for all we serve and serve with in healthcare.

When we work on access through language, timing, cost, and ease we are creating a transformational pathway to ensure healthcare serves all who deserve its care.

When we work on access through language, timing, cost, and ease we are creating a transformational pathway to ensure healthcare serves all who deserve its care. In that light we have focused on that commitment to access to support each one of you in your commitment to transforming the human experience as well. I look forward to seeing so many more voices involved on our journey forward in learning, purpose and impact, together.