INNOVATION...A Current Must for Healthcare

For this post I refer to a brief article that I recently read. It was written by a friend of mine, Andrew Buhayar of Sg2 (a healthcare intelligence group). Here is a link to the article... http://members.sg2.com/content-detail-standard/default.aspx?contentid=7792222189707788447

In essence, the article communicates the need that we have in healthcare to refine our current thinking/care/model while at the same time identify new, creative, "innovative" ways of providing that same care. My first point is that we must work on both the current and future of healthcare. This topic is a passion of mine for many reasons. While I was at Mayo Clinic I worked with Andrew (the author of the article mentioned above) at the SPARC Innovation Lab where we identified care delivery needs and then provided innovative solutions for those needs. We would pilot these ideas, receive feedback, and then alter and try again. I saw the value that it provided to the provider AND the patient. I have also learned that if we are truly trying to be "patient centered" then we must do whatever it takes to please the customer/consumer/patient WHILE maintaining our own needs. The "WHILE" is an important distinction, and I believe that we can do both at the same time.


We read in the brief article by Andrew that Netflix is taking the steps to always be on the look-out for creative ways of providing their product. Well, many industry leaders are doing the same thing. This brings me to a second point. Many industries hold answers to the problems in healthcare (auto, airline, restaurant, hotel, media, manufacturing, entertainment) we just have to be willing to draw from the principles of those industries and apply them to healthcare. One of the major reasons I chose to complete an MBA instead of just an MHA is because of the education and exposure to other industries and principles they apply to improve performance, output, and customer satisfaction. In future posts I will discuss specific examples of this behavior, including; Disney and their guest experience, Toyota and LEAN, Southwest and "Time flies when your having fun", and many others. Other industries can teach us a lot if we are willing to learn!

Although this post is fairly short and unclear the point is simple. Change is inevitable, so let's prepare now by implementing for the future. I quote partially from Andrew's Sg2 Article. In order to meet the demands that we face ALONG WITH the patient demands we must continue "tirelessly refining what works today, while investing in activities that will disrupt the future." The patient must be a part of this "open innovation". I am a firm believer that the system must be changed and part of that change must be initiated by our own healthcare culture.