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In healthcare, is it best to design or to disrupt?

The notion of disruption in technology is practically mainstream by now, and healthcare is simply […]

The notion of disruption in technology is practically mainstream by now, and healthcare is simply the latest target to enter into the cross hairs of would-be disruptors across the globe who emulate Clayton Christensen’s theory, especially in Silicon Valley. 

But what if it’s not the best approach after all? What if, within healthcare especially, a more methodical but fast-moving approach on design is more suitable?

Garbriella Rosen Kellerman, senior manager for clinical design for San Francisco-based Castlight Health, posits such notions in a review of “Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast: A Blueprint for Transformation from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation.”

Three founding members of Mayo’s Center for Innovation – Nicholas LaRusso, Barbara Spurrier and Gianrico Farrugia – recently authored the book , which spells out the more subtle approach to innovation. Just as important as disruption is design, the authors note. If an element of care is designed right and worked over time, then, the thinking goes, it doesn’t need massive disruption in the first place.

The Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation, she says, takes an “implicitly skeptical approach to disruption theory.”

From Kellerman, quoting the authors (emphasis added):

“The authors of ‘Think Big’ are quick to acknowledge the relatively modest ambitions of their brand of innovation. “Is our Pediatric Phlebotomy Chair a disruptive innovation? … Probably not,” they write. “Although it did transform a patient experience, it’s hardly a game changer—and really, that’s by design. Tearing down everything and starting over is not an option in health care.”

That is sure to raise some eyebrows among the disruption theory purists, Kellerman notes. But, the point is not the push aside the disruption model, but rather to foster “non-disruptive innovation—not because the theory of disruption is bankrupt, but because sustaining innovation is a necessary and valid endeavor in its own right.”

It’s certainly an interesting and timely topic, as healthcare enters a new year with equal parts promise, further disruption and plenty of existing and forthcoming challenges.

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