As healthcare in the U.S. goes through a fundamental upheaval, some leaders are finding inspiration and successful strategies by looking toward other industries.
This was an underlying theme from a keynote panel at Becker's Hospital Review 2nd Annual CIO/HIT + Revenue Cycle Conference July 28 in Chicago. Panelists discussed not only seeking insight from outside the industry, but also the importance of shifting from traditional mindsets regarding innovation and technology in healthcare. The traditional players — hospitals, payers, providers, etc. — aren't always the ones with the answers.
Charles Martin Jr., chairman and founder of healthcare-focused investment firm Martin Ventures, put it this way: "I'm not interested in payers and hospitals; I'm interested in people," he said. "Everyone from outside the hospital is where I got my ideas."
Judd Hollander, MD, associate dean for strategic health initiatives and vice chair of finance and healthcare enterprises at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health System, echoed Mr. Martin's statements. When asked by moderator Scott Becker, JD, publisher of Becker's Healthcare, what the most interesting thing he is seeing in healthcare is, Dr. Hollander pointed to Mr. Martin, saying, "I love the way he's…ignoring healthcare and looking other places" for inspiration.
Dr. Hollander took a page out of Mr. Martin's book when he took classes at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia — he didn't take a single healthcare-focused class. Through that experience, he said he saw how looking at industries other than healthcare can bring new, innovative strategies into the industry.
Dr. Hollander said the most important lesson he learned at Wharton that he applies in his job today is that leaders should focus on solving a problem, not buying a service or product. "I can't tell you the number of phone calls and emails [I get]…that say, 'Let me show you my product.' I don't care. I want someone who calls me to say, 'What's your problem?' and 'Here's how I'm going to solve your problem.'"
Valinda Rutledge, vice president of public payer health strategy at the Care Coordination Institute at Greenville (S.C.) Health System, agreed that the focus in healthcare should be on solutions, not products.
"The [health] systems I think that are very successful are the ones that are really focusing on activities that will bring value to the individual….[that are] really, actually solving a problem," she said.
Those solutions, returning to Dr. Hollander and Mr. Martin's points, don't always come from within the industry. There's an element of trial and error inherent in this type of development, according to Ms. Rutledge. Though this type of uncertainty isn't always welcome in an industry entrenched in evidence-based practices, it is the progressive type of thinking that will ultimately lead the industry to better outcomes.
"It's that spirit of innovation," Ms. Rutledge said. "[It's] looking at where the problems are and figuring out the solutions for the problems. [It's] being willing to try things, being willing to accept you may fail with some of the things."