In Honor of Medical Misfits – The Art and Science of Thinking Differently

Had bumper stickers been in existence in the 1850’s Dr. John Snow would likely have sported one on the back of his carriage that was popular in the 1960’s amongst the counterculture crowd that read:

Subvert the Dominant Paradigm.

It was 1854 and a deadly outbreak of cholera was raging through London. At the time, the city’s leading physicians and scientists believed the disease traveled in a miasma – a floating cloud of sickness.

Enter Dr. John Snow, an unknown, upstart physician who also lived in the neighborhood that was at the epicenter of the outbreak. Watching his neighbors die en masse, Snow had a different view. He believed the root cause of the outbreak was not bad air but contaminated water that was transmitting the disease.

When Snow initially presented his theory and supporting work to London’s medical leaders he was rebuffed. But he persevered and through a mix of personal interviews, clever detective work, and data analysis that included tables and a famous map, Snow managed to stop the outbreak and convince local public health officials that cholera could be transmitted through water, not a miasma.? His work ushered in a new medical specialty we now call epidemiology.

Fast forward to the 1970’s. Even in the face of compelling evidence, the introduction of endoscopy into surgical practice was met with resistance in the surgical community (Endoscopic surgery is a?minimally invasive technique?that uses a thin tube with a camera and tools to operate inside the body).

?Leading surgeons at the time saw little use for “key-hole” surgery as the prevailing view and practice was that” large problems required large incisions.”? Today, the endoscopic revolution is seen as one of the biggest breakthroughs in contemporary medical history.[i]

?Healthcare has Been Here Before – Change is Hard

Ever since medicine came out of the shadows and into the light as a data-driven, scientific discipline we’ve aspired to be better. Medical advancements such as vaccines, antibiotics, and other breakthroughs have played a crucial role in reducing the impact of infectious diseases and improving overall health.

?Public health initiatives have led to better sanitation measures, clean water supplies, and waste disposal systems that significantly reduce environmental health risks.? Health education efforts are empowering citizens by increasing awareness of healthy lifestyle choices, and preventive measures that improve health and longevity.

Standing behind every significant advancement that made the world a healthier place were innovation leaders who demonstrated two qualities that set them apart from their traditional-thinking counterparts.

First, change-makers view the problems they are trying to solve with a different lens compared to others. They think differently.? Second, not only do they think differently, but they are also willing to challenge the status quo in their quest to make healthcare better. They stand as exemplars for something often missed by others which is:

No one ever changed the world by doing more of the same thing.

In making this statement, let me be clear: If you are a surgeon, I am not suggesting you go into the operating room and announce to your patients and team that you are going to try freestyling.

There is a historical, evidence-driven order to many aspects of medicine including proven clinical best practices that lead to repeatable quality outcomes.? We must honor time-tested, data-driven best practices while thinking differently about how we apply the science of medicine and public health to measurable improve health outcomes and be more inclusive and more efficient in the use of our finite resources.??

The Art and Science of Thinking Differently

Steve Jobs was a genius-level innovator who made “thinking differently” cool. He drove Apple’s now famous?“Think Different” advertising campaign?to inspire consumers and the company’s innovation efforts. The campaign reminded everyone, consumers, and employees alike, that the “crazy ones…see things differently.”

True innovators excel at thinking differently. They connect the unconnected. They engage in associational thinking by taking a little bit of this and then sprinkling it in a with little bit of that to churn out new solutions that slingshot ahead of their traditional-thinking counterparts.

They approach old problems in new ways. Often, their goal is not to play a better game but to change the game itself.

Innovation Leaders are Not Equal

While most leaders like to think of themselves as innovators, research and history show that some have either never been good at thinking differently or that they, over time, lost their ability to think differently. Why? It’s not that our genetic code automatically shuts it down at a certain age. Instead, many of us grew up, or have worked in environments where thinking differently was punished instead of praised.

?Successful innovators spend 50% more time trying to think differently compared to non-innovators. In other words, non-innovators do occasionally think differently but not as often as true innovators.[ii]

Thinking differently is hard. Researchers at Harvard Medical School report that sixty to eighty percent of adults find the task of thinking differently uncomfortable. Some find it exhausting. [iii]

The good news is that no one has a corner on thinking differently. It is estimated that one-third of one’s innovation capacity comes from how they are wired genetically with two-thirds being driven by our environment. A study of over 5,000 entrepreneurs and executives shows that almost anyone who consistently makes the effort can think differently. [iv] ?

If adults practice things like associational thinking long enough, the task of thinking differently no longer exhausts but energizes them. Like most skill-based activities, if we slog away at it and practice over time, the task becomes easier. And that’s when the most creative ideas pop out.

The impact of thinking differently is not always instantaneous. When a young Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, early ideas for its use included using the phone to alert customers that a message had been received at the telegraph office. [v]

And so, AI has exploded into everyone’s consciousness and life. It’s driving a new era of unbelievable, indescribable, and unpredictable change. What is good enough today will be out-of-date tomorrow. Leaders who are self-satisfied and complacent with the way healthcare works today will be eclipsed by those who think differently, plan creatively, and act innovatively to further our collective mission of better health for all.

While every health leader is talking about innovating with AI, I’m looking for the misfits. The ones whose ideas and efforts make traditionalists nervous but, in the end, change the world and take health and medicine to a new level.?

T.

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[i] Endoscopic surgery: the history, the pioneers. Litynski GS.World J Surg. 1999 Aug;23(8):745-53. doi: 10.1007/s002689900576.PMID:?10415199

[ii] Jeff Dyer,nbsp;Hal Gregersennbsp;, et al, The Innovators DNA, Updated, with a New Preface: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, HBR Press, 2019.

[iii] Shelley Carson,Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life, HBR Press, 2010.

[iv] Jeff Dyer, The Innovator's DNA, Updated, with a New Preface: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, Harvard Business Review Press, 2019

[v] Tom Wheeler, Techlash – Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age.Brookings Institution Press, 2023 P33