Innovation to Transform Healthcare: The Massachusetts General Hospital Experience

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 the Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

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

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

Finally, Dr. Isselbacher observed that a culture of innovation is firmly established in hospitals: “Innovation is a concept that is valued institutionally”, he says. His team is expanding the scope of its activities to more and more hospital departments.

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