For another interesting resource on the latest innovations in health care delivery, check out Harvard Business Review’s web page: “Insight Center”: it’s a growing collection of new articles and opinions that reflect the informed thinking on how to redesign and deliver top-quality health care.  Also included on this site are a few “classics” that provide an excellent foundation for anyone interested in how some top business thinkers understand the American Health Care delivery system.

Highlights from the Insight Center include “Ten Innovations that Will Transform Medicine,” an article by Gardiner Morse in which he introduces readers to new approaches to health care that range from process changes to high-tech tools (Note: there is a nice slide show to accompany this recent article.)  Also, take a look at “How Innovation Can Tame Chaotic Care,” a blog entry by Thomas H. Lee in which he explains that innovators need to watch out when we bring “innovations” into certain sectors of health care – if implemented carelessly, they can increase chaos and therefore increase risk – noting the example of the operating room having been transformed from a once quiet environment into a noisy and crowded one.  Also of note is an Ideacast interview with author Dr. Richard Bohmer in which he discusses how we need to focus on improving the process of health care delivery – specifically, the sequence of tasks, tests and decisions involved in relieving the suffering of patients. 

At Ximedica, we are deeply involved in developing insights and creating innovative process change for our health care partners.  Daily, we work with health care providers across a range of settings – observing them, interviewing them, debriefing them – bringing our design research methods into their delivery settings in order to shed light on how their systems can be made more efficient and safe.  We work in a wide range of complex and critical systems; improving them demands deep thinking and understanding. 

We are deeply committed to the idea that collective and interdisciplinary thinking can make tremendous contributions to improving the value of health care and how it is delivered.  Take a look at the HBR site to understand the theory and the need for changes in the process of health care; talk to us at Ximedica about putting these and other insights into action.