Disruptive Innovations for Healthcare

I became interested in Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation books several years ago. I was intrigued by both the academic and real life arguments he made for the way that tried and true industries such as steel production, semi-conductors, airlines, and the portable music industry can be disrupted—literally turned on its side by new technologies and innovations that create simpler, lower-cost ways of doing things and create new markets along the way.

One of the biggest reasons many of his thoughts appealed to me is that in the late 80’s/early 90’s I worked for a small airline based in SLC, UT called Morris Air. Morris disrupted larger airlines like Delta and Alaska by copying the Southwest Airlines model of single aircraft type (Boeing 737s), no-frills (peanuts), friendly customer service and point to point (no-hubs) flights. We did such a great job, our airline was purchased by Southwest Airlines in 1993—with my airline career over and I headed to medical school.

Clayton takes the same passion to analyzing the problems in the powerful pillars of healthcare such as: hospitals, physicians’ practices, treatment of chronic disease, the healthcare reimbursement system, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and medical education. All of these institutions within healthcare can and should be disrupted in order for real change to occur. I believe that nothing is more ripe for change than the healthcare industry.

I have a giant frustration with the point of care problem we face in our current system. Not only does it take way too long to get into to see physicians, sometimes 2-3 weeks for primary care and 2-3 months for specialists, but once you are there, the customer experience is really messed up. From long waits in the doctors’ offices, to a very strange bill and pay process (pay me a little bit e.g. “co-pay” now, and then wait 6 weeks until I can figure out how much you owe me and then I will send you a bunch of correspondence that make no sense), to sometimes poor follow-up. Clayton speaks on how retail based minute clinics are one way that both hospitals’ urgent care and doctors’ offices are being disrupted.

As President Obama launched his healthcare reform efforts last week, we all need to keep our eyes on what can truly be reformed versus what needs to be disrupted and reinvented in order for us to bring true change to healthcare. Stay tuned!