In a recent radio interview, the CEO of Healthcare Weekly, Codrin Arsene, discussed reasons why the healthcare industry is in an excellent position to disrupt itself by leveraging emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more. The thing is, it isn’t.
With all the ways the healthcare space can transform itself, it surprising that most CEOs and executives are not helping with this much needed digital disruption. So why is it that most of leaders in healthcare aren’t adjusting their digital strategies to be well equipped for the 21st century?
For starters, executives are too afraid to fail.
They are often concerned about the what-ifs that come with implementing something new. Instead of risking failure for break through, they focus on only basics digital optimizations and as a result, the industry has stagnated.
The reason we see so many startups in the healthcare space emerge victoriously and capturing a share of the market is because Startups will, and often need to innovate in order to break through, try something novel and risk failure for the possibility of creating something that can change an industry!
Executives need to adapt this mentality and risk more in order to bring about needed change within the industry.
Another thing inhibiting growth in this sector is that executives have a dead wrong system of reference.
There seems to be this catch-22 situation that is exorbitant in the healthcare space, where executives are only willing to innovate if their competitors are innovating, but the problem with that is clear. Executives need to realize in order to be the top of your industry, you need to be the leader and pioneer, and that means a willingness to bring innovation into your industry from outside.
Look at other industries and how companies there are innovating, and when you see an innovation that can be applied to the point of care, do it and reap the rewards for it.
In the healthcare space, an example of this innovation can be seen with Dr. Simon Stertzer, a nationally renowned cardiologist. Dr. Stertzer has been able to drive innovation in the cardiology space, whether it be performing the first coronary balloon angioplasty in the United States, or starting a cardiovascular stem cell/biotechnology company that uses stem cells to treat heart failure resulting from a heart attack called BioCardia®, Inc. All of this has been possible due to Dr. Stertzer’s willingness to branch out and innovate when no one else in his industry was.
Innovation is nothing without insight.
When an innovation finally takes place, which happens so rarely as is in the healthcare space, it is vital to make sure that innovation works.
That is done by properly tracking and measuring certain KPIs within your new strategy to ensure success. Understanding what a good analytics strategy looks like, and working with people who know how to track them is vital to your success.
Opinions do not matter when innovation is involved, results do, and making sure your innovation reaps the results intended come by tracking its success and seeing how users are interacting with your new idea.
