At the recent HIMSS19 meeting in Orlando, one session stressed the importance of innovation in the healthcare space and paying attention to trends. f94f8628e5fe678daec9ff0000cad0b9.png?sfvrsn=ebb1e11c_0 "disrupt (002)")
Neil Patel, president of Healthbox and EVP at HIMSS, said that while organizations do not have to respond to every threat they see, it’s important to not be like Blockbuster, whose failure to respond to competitors like Redbox and Netflix led to its demise. “You are either being disrupted or a disruptor – sometimes you are both,” he said.
Newcomers to the healthcare space are bringing their own form of disruption. Amazon has made several moves into the space lately, causing many to wonder what the retail giant’s aspirations are. Facebook and others have also made moves into healthcare.
However, many incumbents in healthcare are making disruptive moves of their own, such as Mayo Clinic’s social media efforts for patient engagement and Ochsner Health System’s O Bar, where patients can get the latest in cutting-edge, interactive health technology to help them seamlessly manage their health and wellness in a first-of-its-kind retail setting.
But innovating merely for the sake of innovating won’t lead to true disruption. You need to start with a problem that needs to be addressed and work towards eliminating the problem. Patel said, “The key here is to embrace change, cultivate innovation and think about what problems you want to solve, and then build [or] buy what you want to solve.”