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Letter From The Editor
In this issue we are pleased to bring you the exciting news that Dubai Healthcare City will launch a world-class tertiary care teaching hospital. This story has been developing for several months, as faculty from HMI, health care leaders in Dubai, a team of architects from a top firm, and clinical and administrative experts from throughout the Harvard medical community have worked together to design every component of the University Hospital.
Around Harvard
At the intersection of ideas with Dr. Clayton Christensen
In early January, after much debate, the Massachusetts Public Health Council agreed to allow retail pharmacies to operate limited service medical clinics. CVS, a national pharmacy chain with over 400 in-store “MinuteClinics” located in 25 states, announced plans to roll out the concept in Massachusetts as early as this summer. Debate is likely to continue; critics continue to voice patient safety concerns, while advocates point to shortages of primary care physicians which often lead to patients seeking routine care in hospital emergency rooms.
The CVS phenomenon, says Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, is a disruption of the status quo that should have health care leaders considering its potential longer-term ramifications.
“This is the beginning of a huge wave of business model innovation in health care. These ‘MinuteClinics’ will be able to treat effectively a range of disorders that have become well enough understood so that they can be diagnosed precisely,” said Dr. Christensen, the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at HBS.
Dr. Christensen is a recognized authority on innovation management and organizational change. His books on disruptive technologies and business models have examined how commercial enterprises thrive because of—or fall prey to—industry-changing innovations. His new book Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change (co-authored with Scott Anthony and Erik Roth), argues that the kinds of disruptions that shift industries are preceded by clear signals (if you know what to look for) that dramatic changes are underway.
All such disruptions, says Christensen, have two critical elements: a technological enabler and a business model that propels that technological enabler into the market. For example, molecular diagnostics is having a simplifying effect on how we determine how patients should be treated—little by little, and disease by disease. Christensen says that because of this, over the next 20 years, many diseases will be transformed. They will be precisely identifiable, leading to the development of effective therapies. When that happens, there will be yet another increase in the number of things nurses can do that doctors currently do. Today the CVS MinuteClinic concept is the signal predicting such a development; down the road, the MinuteClinic business model will become more sophisticated to address the long-term industry shift.
Disruptive thinking
In Christensen’s view of the world, ideas come from everywhere. “I love to try to understand science and engineering, and to take insights from one realm and place them in another,” he says. “Great ideas often come at the intersection of disciplines.” Thus the history of synthetic fiber manufacturing, the advent of molecular diagnostics, and the processes involved in materials engineering present Christensen with ready analogies he can use to explore questions in health care, education, and even parenting.
Another explanation for where ideas originate sounds a bit simpler: the classroom. “At HBS we use the case method, which means that every day you walk into the classroom with questions, and then simply listen while some very intelligent students talk them through. This affords me with a tremendous opportunity to learn,” said Christensen. “A lot of my half-baked ideas go into the classroom and then come out thoroughly defined.”
For more information on Dr. Christensen’s work, visit his website at www.claytonchristensen.com.
More Featrured Stories
Five Questions
HMI medical planner and architect Judy Mitchell on facilities design
Affiliate Spotlight
Quality contributions from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
From the Archives
Visionary leadership drives partnership focused on raising standard of excellence for leading Turkish health care provider
Around Harvard
Charting the genetic landscape of lung cancer, studying the aging brain, and revisiting the risks and benefits of hormone therap. Also: a look at the top health stories of 2007, and other news and research from the Harvard medical community.
