Where does innovation happen? Not in the comfortable mainstream, but on the
margins: where one idea crosses into another, disciplines overlap, and the next
thing you know you’ve created a new product, solved a problem, even cured a
disease.
Think about great medical breakthroughs like the first near-total face transplant: In 2004, 41-year-old Connie Culp suffered from a gun shot wound to the face. After four years of reconstructions, Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., led a team that included orthopedic surgeons, eye surgeons, head and neck surgeons, plastic and dermatologic surgeons, anesthesiologists and medical specialists in a 22-hour operation. These specialists were interacting at the very brink of their specialties, crossing boundaries and making medical history.
This happened all because of a multidisciplinary approach. We’ve planned it that way. In 2007 Cleveland Clinic re-invented our organizational chart, redesigning patient care services from the ground up to consist of 26 patient-centered “institutes.” Each institute is focused on a single organ system or disease. They gather the medical and surgical specialists for an organ system or disease onto one team to meet, interact and deliver the full power of their expertise to the patient’s problems.
We don’t wait for fortunate circumstances to arise by happenstance. We’ve created an organization where it happens every day. Like when our top bariatric surgeon, endocrinologist and cardiologist recently got together to design a high-powered study of weight-loss surgery on obese patients with diabetes. As they revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine, they discovered that bariatric surgery combined with optimal medical management erased the biomedical markers of diabetes in the patients studied – a virtual cure for one of America’s greatest health challenges.
Steve Jobs said, “Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night.” At Cleveland Clinic, our facilities are designed to maximize serendipitous encounters among caregivers. Our busy lobbies and skyways are the scenes of many a “curbside consult” and impromptu brainstorming session. And I’ve made more than a few of those 10:30 calls myself.
What is your organization doing to promote innovation at the margins?
Think about great medical breakthroughs like the first near-total face transplant: In 2004, 41-year-old Connie Culp suffered from a gun shot wound to the face. After four years of reconstructions, Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., led a team that included orthopedic surgeons, eye surgeons, head and neck surgeons, plastic and dermatologic surgeons, anesthesiologists and medical specialists in a 22-hour operation. These specialists were interacting at the very brink of their specialties, crossing boundaries and making medical history.
This happened all because of a multidisciplinary approach. We’ve planned it that way. In 2007 Cleveland Clinic re-invented our organizational chart, redesigning patient care services from the ground up to consist of 26 patient-centered “institutes.” Each institute is focused on a single organ system or disease. They gather the medical and surgical specialists for an organ system or disease onto one team to meet, interact and deliver the full power of their expertise to the patient’s problems.
We don’t wait for fortunate circumstances to arise by happenstance. We’ve created an organization where it happens every day. Like when our top bariatric surgeon, endocrinologist and cardiologist recently got together to design a high-powered study of weight-loss surgery on obese patients with diabetes. As they revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine, they discovered that bariatric surgery combined with optimal medical management erased the biomedical markers of diabetes in the patients studied – a virtual cure for one of America’s greatest health challenges.
Steve Jobs said, “Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night.” At Cleveland Clinic, our facilities are designed to maximize serendipitous encounters among caregivers. Our busy lobbies and skyways are the scenes of many a “curbside consult” and impromptu brainstorming session. And I’ve made more than a few of those 10:30 calls myself.
What is your organization doing to promote innovation at the margins?
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