A Journey to Pathology 3.0: Limitations

I need to catch up with the blog. I took a few days off around my birthday and spent almost a week without a laptop. Although writing a blog on a mobile phone seemed realistic initially, I capitulated quickly. Reading glasses, etc. However, prompted by a colleague from the AI industry, I treated myself with a gadget. I’ll tell you if AI on the go is all I need after I unbox it; nevertheless, I am pretty excited about it. It’s sad, I know.

AI has emerged as a dominant topic in healthcare innovation, often accompanied by an almost fringe-like belief in its superpowers to drive the recovery of the healthcare sector. Even more surprisingly, I’ve heard quite a few who think that purchasing AI products qualifies them as innovators. Don’t get me wrong; I can't wait to see microscopes, plate reading, meeting transcriptions and many other mundane and not-so-mundane tasks in the rear mirror. But it is not about gadgets; it is always about us. Technology does not deliver service- we do. We use technology, and unless we are technology developers, we innovate by using technology tools to change how we organise, do things, and improve our customers' experience.

To quote Eliyahu Goldratt, “Technology can bring benefits if, and only if, it diminishes a limitation”. We should endorse this as a fundamental principle. Technology is not intrinsically beneficial; it only holds value when it addresses barriers restricting productivity, efficiency or growth. ?Technology should be deployed with a clear purpose: to address specific problems. There is no point in automating parts of the system that are not limiting workflow. It may only introduce unnecessary complexity without improving overall performance.

Therefore, we should identify root limitations in the system before implementing technological solutions. When core limitations are understood, technology can be effectively employed to remove or reduce them. These core limitations could be anything from inefficient processes or the poor ability to transfer data between silos to lacking a skilled workforce.

Identifying the root constraints of the system may prove to be very challenging. Over time, our perception of reality becomes an assumption, i.e., a subconscious process that adjusts behaviours, and we introduce the set of ‘rules’ that help us function with the limitations within the system. We may not be aware of these adjustments; we may perceive them as “facts of life”.? Did pathologists contemplate anything but working on-site twenty years ago?

This brings us to another important principle. Implementing new technology is futile if we continue to follow the 'old rules' designed to manage old limitations - constraints the new technology brought in to overcome. We need to understand those rules before we can do something about them. This stage proves to be difficult – we are falling into the same trap over and over again. How often have we replaced an inefficient analogue process with an inefficient digital one?

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