Dear Colleagues:
I read an interesting blog written by an internal medicine resident on KevinMD.com. Stories that I have “plagiary-summarized” are as follows:
The U.S. health care system is the world’s top in health care spending per capita, but in terms of performance, we’re far from the top among developed countries. We need disruptive innovation to create better health at a lower cost. Disruptive innovation is the healthcare value equation or the quotient of the sum of quality and satisfaction over cost. Physicians are uniquely positioned to make critical contributions to medical innovation, but few physicians perceive themselves as innovators.
In twin studies, only 30 percent of creativity could be attributed to genetics. When it comes to innovation, nurture eats nature for breakfast. To build innovation skills, doctors can recognize three surprising advantages they have in the innovation game, and three skills they may need to develop in order to make disruptive innovation a reality.
Three innovation advantages physicians possess:
- Formal education and expertise. Aside from a few highly publicized cases of dropouts-turned-geniuses (like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg), most innovators are well-trained in their field of enterprise. In medicine, it’s not a coincidence that around 80 percent of all medical devices considered most useful were initially developed by physicians.
- Above-average prudence. There’s a temptation to assume that all innovators are natural born risk-takers. Great innovators are experts in mitigating risk and clearly defining acceptable loss. Every diagnostic or therapeutic decision must weigh potential risks and benefits. And since our decisions directly impact human lives, doctors naturally lean toward risk-aversion, a trait that can help make the “perfect” innovator or entrepreneur.
- Healthy arrogance. Confidence is a critical trait in successful innovation. Innovators must be able to survive, persist, and recover from failure. If 20+ pre-med courses, high college GPAs and MCATs, four years of medical school, three steps of the USMLE, and three years minimum of grueling residency training doesn’t self-select for confident, persistent, and resilient people, I’m not sure what does!
Three innovation skills physicians may need:
- The Medici effect. Innovative ideas flourish at the intersection of disciplines, and innovators intentionally position themselves at these crossroads in hopes of discovering new ideas from diverse experiences. The ‘spark’ that happens when novel ideas from different experiences coalesce has been labeled the “Medici Effect,” a nod to the Medici family, whose patronage gave rise to the innovation of the Renaissance. Physicians don’t seem to have caught on to the importance of cross-pollination. Around 40 percent of doctors marry other doctors or health care professionals. Most premed students still major in the life sciences. Ties with “industry” are frowned upon, and the idea of “networking” is met with variable favor. Perhaps physicians should practice idea networking in order to discover new insights from people with diverse perspectives and occupations!
- Be brilliantly lazy. Lazy is perhaps the worst four letter word to any aspiring or practicing physician. Hard work is so valued in medicine that we wear our hours worked and sleep sacrificed as badges of honor (See number 3 above!). But in innovation, easy and simple, always trumps complicated and arduous. Bill Gates has famously stated he would always “choose a lazy person to do a hard job.” Why? “Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
- Question the status quo. Following the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality is great in caring for patients. We’re taught to largely leave healthy people alone, to avoid unnecessary testing and treatment. But this way of thinking can kill creativity and thwart preventive, proactive wellness creation activities! Only those who constantly question the ‘industry standard’ create innovation.
“What if, instead of admitting that patient with a heart failure exacerbation, we sent him home with a nurse to provide IV furosemide and check on him a few times a day? What if there was a non-invasive way to measure labs, instead of drawing tubes on tubes of blood every day?”
Only the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. We so need physician innovators!
The above may be thought-provoking, perhaps a bit entertaining but wise advice. I am hoping this finds each of you well! Enjoy the great weather, get some rest and relaxation in – it’s much deserved! Thanks for all that you do for our patients, communities, UM Shore Regional Health and each other.
Sincerely,
William E. Huffner, MD, MBA, FACEP, FACHE
Chief Medical Officer / Senior Vice President- Medical Affairs
UM Shore Regional Health
219 S. Washington Street
Easton, Maryland 21601
Phone: 410-822-1000, ext. 5867
Fax: 410-822-2147
Email: whuffner@shorehealth.org