On Wednesday, May 18, health care professionals, business leaders, students and public servants gathered to attend an event organized by the Telfer Health Transformation Exchange (THTex), featuring Dr. Eric Isselbacher, Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Isselbacher described the activities and role of Healthcare Transformation Lab. Interestingly he said that the biggest challenge for the Lab was, and still is, to bring a culture of innovation to a very successful organization (Massachusetts General Hospital is consistently ranked a top hospital in the USA).

During his talk, Dr. Isselbacher stated that an “innovation is set to fail” because of the nature of disruption it has the potential to unleash. With that in mind, he and his team focus on each potential failure point and engage to transform potential failure into a success.

Concluding, Dr. Isselbacher observed that a culture of innovation is firmly established in a hospital – “innovation is a concept that is valued institutionally” – he and his team are expanding the scope of their activities to more and more hospital departments.

After Dr. Isselbacher’s presentation, the audience engaged in lively discussion centered on healthcare transformation, innovation strategies and comparison between the American and Canadian health system.

For a link to Dr. Isselbacher’s slide presentation, click here.

For a link to the Healthcare Transformation Lab website, click here.