Docs for Change…
… a room full of them. This past week I was asked to speak at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The name of the gathering was called Transformation, a Symposium on Innovative Health Care Delivery. It was an unbelievable couple of days; an opportunity to hear and discuss new ideas, insights, methods and models for designing the future of medical practice and patient care. The symposium started with Larry Keeley (Doblin Inc.), who is right up there at the top of the list when it comes to the subject of innovation. If you have not seen his ten types of innovation, you should,… it makes it so clear why some market launches take hold and others do not. Larry then outlined where he thought the focus of healthcare innovation would yield the greatest results (e.g., tailored healthcare service and stretching resources in new ways). He ended by encouraging everyone to be curious, confident and courageous,… great coaching.
There were too many excellent speakers to review them all, but there are a couple that really caught my attention. One is Jane Fulton Suri, Chief Creative Officer at world renowned IDEO. As a spokesperson for human centered design, Jane used photographs to show how the simple act of looking at a process through the eyes of the user, gives one an entirely different perspective. For one project they had a design researcher play the role of a patient, using a video camera at the side of their head to capture exactly what the patient sees before, during and after a surgery procedure. It created an emotional stir in the audience,… as they saw first hand just how unnerving and unforgiving the patient’s experience is, as they lay flat on their back on the hospital gurney.
The last I would like to mention is Michael Howe, CEO of MinuteClinic. What caught my attention was the how cost effective and accessible MinuteClinic,… it’s been referred to as the 7-Eleven of patient acute care. It proves that you don’t have to be everything to everyone to be valued. MinuteClinic makes a few procedures available to large audiences, by integrating their service into the consumer’s lifestyle. They locate where people frequent such as shopping areas,… how brilliant is that. Get a Starbuck’s cappuccino and a flu shot as you shop for a new pair of shoes.
These three speakers, as well as other presenters, urged the doctors and medical professionals to seriously consider their role in driving innovative change. It’s not going to happen on its own. It takes their getting involved. This is true of any business, not just healthcare. Look all around you for the seeds of innovation are generally right in front of your eyes. You know what’s not working, what creates a hassle for your users, the process redundancies and inefficiencies you work-around every day. So just as Larry Keeley suggested; be curious, in your search for opportunities; be confident, that you can make a difference; and be courageous, in taking action to shape your future. You in shape…?
… I didn’t even know it existed until this past week when I attended a wonderfully interesting, informative and inspiring conference in Camden, Maine called Pop!Tech. The conference theme was The Human Impact. On day one, as part of a sub-theme titled The Pursuit of Happiness, I had the pleasure of hearing about the SLOW movement from Carl Honore´. The subject made immediate sense to me. I stopped at the bookstore that very day and got his book In Praise of Slowness (A comprehensive look at the worldwide SLOW movements making their way into the mainstream – in offices, factories, neighborhoods, kitchens, hospitals, concert halls, bedrooms, gyms, and schools), and read it from cover-to-cover (I probably should have read it more slowly than I did). Carl suggests that with the start of the Industrial Age, the world has shifted into high gear. He calls it the ‘cult of speed’. And it’s true. Racing through traffic, twelve hour days, meeting-after-meeting, and Blackberry email into the night. When you sit back and consider your life, it’s exhausting,… and depressing. The author is not saying that every aspect of one’s life should be run at half speed. He merely is saying that for the health of our bodies and minds, we need balance. Be fast when fast is what is needed, and slow when slowness is called for.
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