Keynote speaker and social commentator Malcolm Gladwell (author of Outliers, Blink and The Tipping Point) whose gift for articulating fresh ideas has influenced a generation of business leaders, was present at iSOFT‘s Ideaworks for Healthcare 09. Mr Gladwell opened the discussion by addressing whether we are at healthcare’s ‘Tipping Point’ and how to accelerate a new era of innovation in healthcare. He gave an interesting talk on two types of creativity, inspired by a book by David Galenson on Cezanne and Picasso.
Galenson writes that Picasso, a conceptual innovator, pretty much knew what he was going to create even before he created it, and came up with new ideas at a rapid pace early in his career. Cezanne, by contrast, was an experimental innovator, slowly rehashing and improving on a particular concept until he nailed it. Consequently, his greatest works–or at least the ones most valued by collectors–didn’t come until later in his life.
These two types of innovations, which Galenson argues, and which Gladwell agrees, can be extended into other arenas, such as music, and more to the point of this conference, healthcare innovation. For the purposes of Ideaworks for Healthcare had some interesting points to make. Many people are mistakenly hoping for a quick fix derived from a bold breakthrough, such as conceptual innovator Pablo Picasso achieved in the art world. Instead, Gladwell said, we should pursue step-by-step experiments, like those of experimentally innovative painter Paul Cezanne.
“We are in danger of approaching the healthcare problem like it’s a Picasso problem and not a Cezanne problem,” Gladwell said. “With really complex problems, you can’t start with a grand idea,” he said. “You need a trial-and-error method.” ‘We don’t need a Picasso to solve our healthcare problems. We need a Cezanne,’” he said.
Comparing the U.S. and the Japanese automotive industries, he said that the big three have traditionally relied on the big hits, be it the muscle cars of the 60s, the minivans of the 80s, and the SUVs of the 90s. “In this way, the U.S. automobile industry are Picassos–which is the only time you’ll hear that in a sentence,” he quipped.
The Japanese, though, while rarely, if ever, coming out with a new style of car, slowly innovate to perfect those 
models, such as Toyota’s hybrid engine. Gladwell also drew examples from the pharmaceutical industry, which, ironically, is focused on Picasso-style innovation even though their most successful products–namely, Viagra and Lipitor–came out of Cezanne-style innovation.
So why the health care businesses nowdays so fixated on the quick fix? It’s a lot less riskier. The conceptualists, says Gladwell, can approach a company’s board and say, We’re going to solve this problem, and this is how we’re going to do it. Experimentalists, on the other hand, don’t necessarily know where their research is going to lead them, will probably take longer, and have a tougher time articulating their plan of action. With limited budgets and patience, it’s the former that get funded. But increasingly, Gladwell says, we’re encountering problems that can only be solved through extended trial and error.
“I’m waiting for a politician to stand up and say, ‘We don’t need a Picasso to solve our healthcare problems. We need a Cezanne,’” he said.
Boeken van Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Blink
Malcolm Gladwell
Janine Budding, Founder and firestarter MedicalFacts.eu 