11/23/2022
Thankful for Physician Entrepreneurs
As we approach this week’s Thanksgiving holiday, I thought it would make sense to understand why I think we should be thankful for the physician entrepreneur in healthcare. Last week, I outlined some major differences between two key mindsets needed for success in healthcare innovation: the physician and the entrepreneur.
Why we don’t spend enough time celebrating physician entrepreneurs is odd to me. Physicans entrepreneurs are not only unique but incredibly critical to future of healthcare innovation success. As tech startups struggle to gain traction or longevity, I think its time to ponder the value of more physician engagement in healthcare innovation.
Physicians too often get labeled as poor businesspeople, criticized for a lack of accepting of disruption or falling complicit to the ways pushed upon them while our healthcare systems and innovations continue to fail. Sadly too many physicians have given into this sense of learned helplessness and become reticent to try to foster change. They are simply too exhausted to think they can make a change. The error of this perspective and its perception is that it also enables too many businesses to work around the physicians or not feel compelled to seek physician perspectives. I see far too many companies who rely on explaining why their “idea” can fix healthcare “fast” while not understanding the real problems. This lack of the valuable physician mindset too often leads to workarounds, fragmented care and not true lasting solutions.
As a physician, I will outline my biased opinion on doctor’s perspectives and why I feel we should be leaning into more physician leadership across healthcare. If we want successful innovation let’s face it, it is not disruption. Disrupters tend to try to over rely on early business success while they fail to recognize they are destroying some basic fundamentals of improving healthcare. They like gadget plays and not blocking and tackling. Physician entrepreneurs recognize innovation should instead focus on continual improvement and change that leads to better outcomes and long term solutions. Physicians therefore can be at the core of healthcare innovation. The physician role every day is to influence patients toward better health. Business minds, as mentioned last week are critically important to healthcare innovation, but so much better when they engage physicians. The dyad of physician entrepreneur and business mindset can not only can run a spreadsheet and scale an idea, but can better understand what problems need to be solved and what “should” be scaled. Businesses need physician entrepreneurs to partner and lead innovation.
All aspects of healthcare should seek more “physician” entrepreneur mindset in leadership in my opinion. Physicians bring a unique perspective to the grit and persistence needed for companies to succeed. Solving healthcare problems is hard and needs those who have experienced the issues that need to be improved upon and who possess the passion to persevere. Physician entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to improve care or at least not repeat the same issues they see repeatedly. Physicians have incredible experiences and worldly perspectives that come from a unique side of healthcare with exposure to the worst at times. Here are a few experiences that fuel my passion to improve pediatric healthcare:
a. Trying to describe to a family of how all our efforts in resuscitation have failed and their child has died.
b. Being called to a hospital room late at night to pronounce a child whose long battle with cancer is over.
c. Calling the police to intervene in a case where a child has been physically and sexually abused.
d. Consoling a mother whose child drowned after she went inside for a few minutes to answer the phone.
e. Trying to deescalate an out-of-control child with mental illness who is biting, hitting, spitting at those trying to help them.
f. Being raised in a family that has experienced the death of child and living its impact.
These types of experiences inspire physician entrepreneurs down a challenging path. A path requiring the passion and perseverance to solve the hard problems. The high energy just to care for patients is enormous and at times overwhelming. It’s why many physicians rely on using workarounds for what they see as the quick fixes to minor problems. The challenge to care and to innovate or accept change is difficult often just too much to consider. This quandary is compounded for most physicians who fail to embrace change because they repeatedly see “ideas” that don’t fix problems and just make the problems worse. The workarounds take all their energy to tread water leaving little time or energy to slow down and think about solutions. Physicians come from the frustrations of the outcomes in healthcare and how current “innovation” is driving burnout, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Again, this highlights why we need to celebrate and encourage the physician entrepreneur. The physician entrepreneur is rare and can lead to more physician led innovation and improve physician mental health.
A great example of failed innovation in health care is the electronic medical record. We can use this an example of a huge miss in technology. It’s a data entry system and is truly recording the data which is entered by the clinician. Sadly, its not a tool to improve health care, augment patient experience and is an added burden to physicians. Physicians are tasked, held accountable and paid based on how many boxes are checked and not the outcomes of their patients. From my examples, above, the electronic health record offers little to no value or impact.
Do you think if physicians had led this transformation, the electronic record would be what it is today? My bet is the EHR would be centered around gathering clinical data, supporting decision support tools, enhancing workflows, and offering more automated messaging, prescription refills on and on…. Instead, it’s technology that is way behind on meeting the needs of its own end user and makes things much more difficult, cumbersome and hasn’t ever demonstrated better outcomes. If you ask most physicians, it’s likely the one “innovation” that slows them down the most and hinders more care than it helps at least at the point of care between the physician and patient.
I think physicians can lead to greater utility of our innovations. We can’t think that whining will make it better, we have to lean in. My new favorite say is “whining is not winning.” Whining is not solving our problems nor is it lessening the burden of higher costs and worse outcomes that we all witness in our healthcare system. We need more physician entrepreneurs to lean in to driving solutions and need more business minds to lean into including physician perspectives. Physicians can take the lead on ways to improve clinical care and patient outcomes through technology, practice operations, clinical networks, digital health just to name a few key roles. The time has come to embrace the physician entrepreneur and move them onto your leadership team, thought leadership, and investor panels. Startup founders coming from business or technology perspective would be wise to gain perspective from the problem end of healthcare. Physician entrepreneurs can assist the development of innovations that overcome “pain points” differently and with staying power. Putting the problem first and continually driving to a solution is far better than coming from the all-too-common approach of my cool gizmo or technology can find a problem you need me to solve.
It’s time for physicians to embrace our physician entrepreneur colleagues and push for more physician led innovation. Physicians coming together and leading is key to better care.
If you are a physician entrepreneur or know one, please add your name and company to the comments. Let’s give thanks for all the physicians working hard alongside our business colleagues, administrators, investors and patients trying to truly solve problems and better outcomes for all. Next week, I look forward to discussion our need for a diverse team to lead healthcare innovation.
Note: As a reminder this newsletter is written from my experience and perspective. The newsletter does not imply or relay the opinions of others. The intent is to offer an avenue for dialogue and discussion around important topics in healthcare and healthcare innovation from one doctor’s perspective. I am a physician and so can only write from my perspective. If you are clinician, provider, nurse or whatever my goal is to enable you to agree or disagree and have not intention to suggest or imply that only the physician perspectives matter. They do matter but as part of a larger dialogue that can foster better health outcomes.