What does it take to truly transform the experience and delivery of healthcare? An eclectic mix of today’s most creative thinkers from a wide range of disciplines offered intriguing, and sometimes surprising answers at the 2011 Mayo Clinic Transform Symposium, held September 11 to 13 in Rochester, Minnesota. Focused on the theme, “Designing Solutions, Inspiring Health,” the multidisciplinary event drew an audience of hundreds of physicians, researchers, healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, designers, innovators and patient advocates. Here are some of the top insights:
* To unleash your imagination, give yourself permission to think like a child. During a “Brain Bowl” creativity workshop led by Murf Murphy, Chief of Global Design at GE Healthcare, participants were told they would relearn the creative way of thinking we all have at age 10, as we were challenged to brainstorm about how to improve cancer care. Using magic markers to write on colorful pieces of sticky paper and even the walls of the circular workshop booth, the 48 participants, including me, generated a total of 864 ideas in just 18 minutes. Ideas ranged from the importance of touch and incorporating cultural beliefs into personalized care, to harnessing molecular genomics for a better understanding of how cancer develops. “This is the power of group genius,” said GE Healthcare’s Global Design head, Bob Schwartz.
* Innovation is a marriage of science and empathy. Blending technology features and emotional benefits is key to enhancing patients’ healthcare experience, Schwartz explained during a discussion of corporate creativity. “When you encounter a CT scanner or a mammography device, it stares at you with no look on its face. You wonder if you’re going to die.” As an example of transforming a scary experience into a cheerful one, he cited GE’s Adventure Series, based on kid-friendly adventure themes and characters that transform imaging rooms into space adventures, coral city submarines, pirate islands and other designs. The hands-on Adventure Series coloring book stories help prepare kids for when they will have to stay still, and they may be more at ease as medical images are captured. GE’s Chief Marketing Officer, Beth Comstock, added that after having a MR scan with an Adventure Series product, “a young girl with brain cancer asked, ‘Mommy, can I do it again?’ There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
* To remain innovative over time, you have to be willing to reinvent what’s already successful. During the corporate creativity session, James Hackett, President and CEO of furniture manufacturer Steelcase, posed an interesting question, “Why didn’t Sotheby’s become eBay?” The reason that successful or even famous businesses don’t always evolve into the next big thing in their industry, according to Hackett, is that “transformation is so difficult. Systems, as they try to move from the state they are in to the state they should become, don’t want to give up the virtues that made them great. But if you are trying to make things better over time—whether it’s an office chair or a CT scanner—there’s a shift in human patterns” that has to be taken into account.
* Ponder the deeper meaning of everyday objects. Hackett encouraged the audience to contemplate the Steelcase chairs on the stage. To understand office furniture, he explained, you have to understand work, and how it’s changing. Gone are the days when people worked 9 to 5 in a skyscraper, since our wired society can work 24/7, often at home. Similarly, in a breakout session called “Unlocking the Power of Sharing Data,” speakers discussed how another ubiquitous object, the cell phone, could become a health sensor if doctors looked at their patients’ usage patterns. For example, such research might show that people with a chronic illness send more text messages during a flare-up, or that making fewer calls to friends meant that the patient was becoming depressed.
* Avoid words that stifle innovation; embrace words that support creative thinking. During the symposium’s session on designing solutions, speaker Roger Martin, Dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, told the audience that he’d turned his planned remarks into a rant about two words that kill innovation, “Prove it.” Since a new approach can only be proven over time, this response may lead to missed opportunities to discover fresh solutions. “Imagining a world that doesn’t now exist and is not provable is the highest form of innovation,” said Martin. During the Brain Bowl workshop, Murf Murphy taught the participants two words that nurture creative thinking, “Yes, and…” This phrase is very powerful, he explained. “The ability to add and support is critical to innovation.”
CONNECT THE DOTS
To see videos of some of the Mayo Clinic’s Transform symposium sessions, click here. Also check out the GE Report, “Creativity and Design Meet Healthcare: Top Insights from the Mayo Clinic’s Transform Conference,” which includes a video of the Brain Bowl workshop.
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