Speaking the Same Language in Healthcare: Why It Matters More Than You Think

Jun 18

Have you ever felt lost in a meeting even though everyone spoke the same language? Everyone assumes they’re on the same page, but no one is quite sure what’s actually being said—or worse, they think they understand, but they’re completely off.

We have all had this experience, especially in healthcare, where technology, clinical care, and business collide. Miscommunication not only slows things down but can also derail essential outcomes.

My dad, a retired university professor with a Ph.D. in chemistry, wrote an article titled "Why Scientists Should Read Shakespeare". It was about broad thinking, shared understanding, and simplifying complex things. This concept matters just as much in healthcare.

Even when teams work together towards the same goal, they often talk past each other. Shared understanding does not always come naturally; it takes effort, but the benefits are real when it happens.

Think of it like learning a new language. Before you can use sentences or have a conversation, you need to understand the vocabulary. In healthcare, many of us are thrown into a conversation where we do not know the ‘words’ or ‘rules’, leading to confusion and frustration.

Why is This Hard in Healthcare?

A big part of what makes healthcare so complicated is just how prices are decided. In most other situations, the person buying something (the consumer) and the person selling it (the vendor) directly agree on the value and cost. Healthcare is different because there's a third group involved, the payer (like your insurance company), which has a lot of say in or even sets the price. This separation, where the seller (doctor or hospital) and the buyer (patient) aren't directly working out the cost, leads to a confusing setup full of rules,

Same Words, Different Worlds

I often joke that I have a Ph.D. in Googling, and if you've been in a meeting trying to understand a term or TLA (Three-Letter Acronym), googling like crazy, you are not alone. Here are some painfully real examples of how the same word can mean very different things depending on who’s in the room. (Don't worry, we'll define these healthcare terms in an upcoming series!)

Technical: Graphical User Interface (pronounced gooey)
Non-technical: Wait, did you say gooey? Like dessert?

Claim

Healthcare: A reimbursement request (invoice for services provided by the doctor)
Legal: An official assertion or allegation
Miner: Staking a claim (land rights)
Everyday use: "They claim to be an expert in spreadsheets."

Coding

Technical: Writing software/programming
Healthcare: Assigning ICD or CPT codes for billing
Emergency Room doctor: The patient is crashing
Spy: Writing to confuse the enemy

Technical: A screen
Healthcare: A type of Medicare policy (Local Coverage Determination)
Other: Are we talking about television?

Denial

Healthcare: A claim that is not paid
Therapist: A defense mechanism
Legal: What a person says against an accusation

Network:

Technical: Connected systems
Healthcare: A group of doctors
TV: NBC, ABC, CBS
Career Coach: Building your LinkedIn followers

Portal

Technical: User Login Interface to access a program
Science Fiction: A magical wormhole to another dimension

These aren't just language quirks; they can quickly become roadblocks. When teams don't share the same vocabulary or context, it leads to misunderstandings and friction between product, business, and operations, ultimately impacting the quality and usability of what gets delivered. And in healthcare, that disconnect can directly affect the customer experience.

The Power of Analogies and Metaphors: What desserts can teach us about plastics.

My mom, raising eight kids and the wife of a chemist, once explained thermoplastics vs. thermosets using cakes and candy. Candy is like a thermoplastic, it softens with heat and can be reshaped. You can warm it up, re-melt it, cut it differently, or even mold it into something new.

Cake, on the other hand, is a thermoset, it hardens as it cooks (cures) and stays that way. Once it’s set, you can’t melt it and reshape it without ruining the structure.

This is exactly what we need in healthcare conversations: analogies, visual language and plain English terms. We can explain the concepts, provide simplicity, and get teams collaborating.

Speaking the same language lays the foundation for better results across the board. Imagine a business analyst writing test scenarios that an engineer could immediately understand and translate into code. Could that reduce back-and-forth? Speed up time to market? Improve quality? Increase revenue?

Absolutely.

Establishing a shared language through clear definitions, visual aids, workflows, and real examples improves communication, accelerates collaboration, and drives measurable impact.

Lost in Translation – and How We Fixed It

Much of my career has been spent in Product Management, working closely with engineers, business analysts, quality assurance testers, and the client-facing operations team. In one major project (we'll keep names anonymous), our team struggled with translating business and clinical requirements into technology concepts. This caused severe delays in our timelines and animosity amongst the teams. During a leadership session, I asked the lead engineer a simple question: "Do you know what a claim is, not referring to the 'ID' in our system, but what it is in the healthcare industry?". The engineering leader paused and said, "Not really". That was the lightbulb moment! It became clear we needed to shift how we were communicating. We tried something new and changed direction. To me, asking an engineer to understand medical coding and billing without explanation is like sitting someone in front of a Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) window and asking them to write a query without context. It is unreasonable. We shifted direction and included our engineering and quality assurance teams in medical coding classes. Several even earned their CPC (Certified Professional Coder) certification. It was a great experience, and the effort paid off in tangible ways. It might not seem obvious how something as simple as "speaking the same language" could lead to significant improvements. However, transparent communication made our team more productive, aligned, and ultimately successful.

As a result, we saw:

Stronger team communication — leading to better collaboration, team dynamics, and employee retention
Tighter planning — improved Agile Program Increment (PI) and iterative (sprint) planning with fewer misunderstandings
Clearer product requirements — more effective user stories and fewer iterations needed
More effective unit testing — with developers using realistic, real-world examples
Test-driven development that made sense — driven by shared understanding of the requirements
Improved User Experience (UX) design — thanks to a deeper understanding of user needs
Higher product quality — aligned with client expectations and fewer missed details
Faster delivery and reduced time to market
Better team metrics — with more precise distinctions between bugs and missed requirements
Increased client satisfaction — reflected in higher NPS (Net Promoter Score) and greater engagement in client forums

The most important thing is that we loved working together. One executive told me they had not seen a product and engineering team that seemed like friends. Our answer was, "We are speaking the same language."

Clarity Builds Empathy

After this shift, we had developers who presented at user conferences and co-hosted usability and feedback sessions with our clients. Our escalation program included support, product, development, and quality assurance. The processes allowed the teams to get honest user feedback and, in other words, "the team ate their dog food," meaning that when a defect was released into the wild, the team heard about it and understood the impact (gained empathy for the client as well as created accountability).

It also opened the door for training non-technical people in technical capabilities (watch an upcoming blog post on doing the impossible, also known as That Time Bonnie Had to Learn to Write SQL).

The team's productivity also increased, and we saved on resources (we did not add new resources) and operational costs (we lowered quality issues and reduced customer service inquiries). We also improved collaboration with our offshore teams (increasing output and reducing rework).

It Comes Down to People

It is not just about understanding definitions or acronyms. It's about people. When teams truly understand each other, collaboration improves, delivery speeds up, and trust builds. Whether you're serving customers, patients, or colleagues, communication is the foundation that holds everything together.

At CoView, our mission is to turn confusion into clarity. When teams speak the same language, they move faster, build smarter, and enjoy working together.

Did this post resonate with you? Look for more coming soon!

Coming Soon: Free Webinar + Blog Series

This July, I'll be hosting a free webinar: Speaking the Same Language in Healthcare

We'll cover:

Real-world communication breakdowns
Practical tools to bridge the gap across roles
Common healthcare terms and acronyms, explained simply

To support this, I'm launching a blog series that further breaks down confusing terminology and uses real-life examples.

Note from the Author: This series is not a prep course for medical coding exams. It’s designed to help cross-functional teams in the healthcare industry work together more effectively. The skills you'll learn will also empower you to be a more confident advocate for yourself and your loved ones in your personal healthcare matters.

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