Innovation Month from a Health Care Point of View

Chris Tsai | June 21, 2010  -  Leave a Comment

Scott Kirsner and Colleagues designated June as Innovation Month.  Of the 160 innovation events this month listed by Greenhorn, six are related to healthcare:

MassMEDIC’s Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs

The Convergence: Life Sciences Leaders Forum

Adapt and Thrive – How ABIOMED has the heart to thrive in the evolving Medical Device industry

Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day 2010

The Perfect Storm in MedTech: Will the US Remain the Global Leader?

MHT’s Emerging Technologies Forum: Health IT and the Cloud

Honestly, that’s more than I expected, but it’s still a minority.  And anyone who has attended both healthcare related events and more “tech” focused ones can tell you the events feel extremely different. The tech conferences are infused with a youthful energy (even though the panelists don’t necessarily reflect that, as Jules Pieri of the Daily Grommet points out.

Health care conferences are well, the opposite.  Just read the titles of the conferences above – they have little appeal to the general audience.  I’m guilty of this, too – my company is hosting an upcoming event on June 29 titled “Physicians Interested in Entrepreneurship & Industry”.  As catchy as Tech Tuesday?  Not really.

Clark Waterfall mentions the challenges to innovation in New England.  Add to that the conservative training health care professionals face, lengthy regulatory processes, and constantly changing reimbursement issues, and now you’ve got the challenges to health innovation.

How do we reverse this and lower the barrier to innovation for those in the ecosystem already? I’ll talk about physicians – partly because I Understand their situations, but also because I’ve spoken with numerous doctors about this topic.

Let’s start with the basics – becoming a Doctor takes forever.  By the time you get advanced degrees after years of conservative training, a lot of innovation potential has been filtered (or sapped) out. Saddled with six figure loans, starting a family, and finally making more than a resident salary, physicians often aren’t keen on the idea of potentially starting over outside a clinical setting.

But health innovation is a challenge for other reasons as well.  Physicians are driven by the science – it’s what they get pimped about, it’s how they get evaluated, and it’s how they avoid lawsuits.  They are driven by a desire to achieve competence in the application of that science.  But the rules and behaviors that emerge from these motivations are often contradictory to innovation.  In starting a new venture, you face uncertainty, are compelled by business strategy (and gut instinct), and you need to work as a team. You may lead the team as a physician, but you have to share the decision making and rely on other’s experience and expertise – that’s different.  Scaling that wall for a physician starts looking very daunting.  Try to forget what you learned in med school, and I’m not talking simply about the science.

As our contribution to June Innovation Month,  careinnovators hopes you’ll join us on June 29 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.  Come listen to a great physician panel, network with likeminded innovators, and enjoy complimentary food and a drink!  We’re holding this event in response to not only our personal experiences, but to address the demand we receive for physicians to serve as Chief Medical Officer or Medical Director for one startup or another.

Preparing health care professionals, and not just physicians, for the innovation economy is a bigger project in need of many ideas.  We’ll be trying different solutions as a core part of what we do.  Our “Innovation Resolution” at careinnovators is to help make sure that Innovation Month of June 2011 will be filled with health care professionals pitching, co-founding, and simply joining in.

What are your thoughts?