If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care

I was lucky enough to attend UCSF’s School of Medicine Leadership Retreat today which was facilitated by the design firm IDEO (if you have’t heard of them before, 60 minutes just profiled the company’s founder, David Kelley, the video of which can be found here.)  

To get us started with the process, we had homework that forced us to research unrelated fields and industries to help solve the challenges that we face in our own institution.  This led one group to wonder – what if other companies looked at health care as a model?  What would that company look like?

We’ll, we have an answer below.  The original source is from a National Journal article by Jonathan Rauch written in 2009.  It was put to video by Mary & Peter Alton.

My favorite line comes at the end.  It beautifully encapsulates the stale defense of the status quo and highlights the need to look outside of health care for solutions to what ails us:

“Sir. Please. Calm down and be realistic. I’m sure the system can be frustrating, but consumers don’t understand flight plans and landing slots. Even if they did, there are thousands of separate providers involved in moving travelers around, and hundreds of airports, and millions of trips. Getting everyone to coordinate services and exchange information just isn’t realistic in a business as complicated as travel.”

by: Eric Widera (@ewidera)