Medinnovation Revisited

June 30, 2011 - Fifty five months ago, in November, 2006, 1848 blogs ago, I launched Medinnovation blog. The launch was partly in response to work I was doing with Emmi Solutions, Inc, an innovative Chicago-based health care firm.

Emmi, still in business, had the idea of preparing and selling online videos to hospitals and physicians that prepared patients for what to expect from procedures about to be performed or how to cope with chronic diseases.

I thought it was a wonderful idea (and still do), for it engaged patients, taught them what to expect, and diminished misunderstandings that might lead to malpractice suits.

So I began to write blogs about effective medical innovation solutions and how to go about creating them. This phase of Medinnovation lasted until the debate over health reform began in earnest, picked up steam when Obamacare passed in March 2010, and has been my main theme since.

Health reform and medical innovation are closely linked. Overly bureaucratic reform can stifle innovation, yet innovation may be the best way to lower costs, make care more accessible, and improve performance and outcomes.

In 2007, I wrote a book Innovation-Driven Health Care; 34 Key Concepts for Transformation (Jones and Bartlett, 2007). It was arresting enough that Pfizer bought 5000 copies to distribute at medical meetings.

I have since produced another book, The Health Reform Maze: A Blueprint for Physician Practices (Greenbranch Publishing), which is due out later this summer. The Maze book contains a section on medical innovation, which contains these eight essay blogs.

Innovation – Last Great Hope

-- Irresistible Force

-- Why Not More Innovation?

-- Balancing Reform and Innovation

-- Top Ten Innovators

-- Getting Your Care at Work

-- No Miracles Among Friends

-- How To’s of Medical Innovation

In these blogs, I sought to give a balanced picture of what innovation is all about and to give examples of why, when, how, and where medical innovation worked.

Now I am in another phase of thinking about innovation.

In October I will be visiting Luis G. Pareras, MD, a neurosurgeon with an MBA, in Barcelona, Spain, to talk about the European approach to innovation. Doctor Pareras’ book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Healthcare Sector: From Idea to Funding to Launch(Greenbranch Publishing, 2011), is exactly what its title says it is.

It is a nuts-and-bolts primer an effective innovative idea in those health care sectors in which ideas are needed, along with innovative trends, how to develop a business plan, assemble a team to make the idea real, gather venture capital money, and go to market.