New Health Care Delivery Models and Strategies

This article synthesizes the discussions and conclusions of a 2007 symposium on innovations in health care delivery and economics sponsored by Mayo Clinic’s Department of Internal Medicine, Rochester, Minn. “Transformation: A Symposium on Innovative Health Care Delivery,” communicated what current innovations in health care delivery look like, what the frontiers of innovation seem to be, and what elements are necessary to support innovation and change. Over 200 health care practitioners and experts in the innovation and design fields learned how Renaissance Health of Cambridge, Mass., delivers low cost, primary care to people who can’t afford insurance premiums, and how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, based in Eagan, Minn., created a partnership with primary care providers to deliver specialty diagnoses to patients without additional office visits. They also heard how MinuteClinic based in Minneapolis, Minn., was able to expand its practice throughout the United States by bringing their services directly to patients in convenient consumer locations. These innovations could be attributed to several business re-engineering strategies that rely on getting closer to what the consumer is thinking and feeling. Design and innovation firms suggested empathy as a pathway to improved customer services. Renaissance Health even called on Disney Imagineers to help them develop a practice that could deliver what few other health care organizations have been able to – unsubsidized primary care to poor Americans. The symposium helped create useful partnerships and initiate critical dialogue among those who can truly have an impact on American health care delivery. It was a timely addition to the national debate in which many citizens, politicians and policy makers are engaged. Introduction Late in 2007, Mayo Clinic’s Department of Internal Medicine, Rochester, Minn., hosted its first-ever innovation symposium. The audience for “Transformation: A Symposium on Innovative Health Care Delivery,” included 200 practitioners and thought leaders in health care, design, and innovation. Discussions were engineered to help encourage and create unique partnerships that could improve health care delivery and economics. This article synthesizes the conference discussions and conclusions by relating the current trends in health care innovation and describing the mechanisms that promote innovation throughout an organization. Transformations: 2007 Innovation Symposium Addresses New Health Care Delivery Models and Strategies