Dates of Project: October 2009–October 2011
Field of Work: Disruptive innovation in health care
Problem Synopsis: A disruptive innovation transforms or creates a market or sector by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, reliability, and affordability for a product or service that was complicated, expensive, and often inaccessible. Within health care, integrated health systems—which are both insurers (payers) and providers of health care—have the most capacity for disruptive innovation. Integrated health systems are networks of managed care organizations and health care providers (e.g., hospitals and medical groups providing primary and specialty outpatient care) serving people enrolled in the managed care plans.
Synopsis of the Work: Researchers at Innosight Institute conducted case studies of seven integrated health systems to find out how their staffs thought, acted, and innovated and to identify ways that other health systems could deliver better care at a lower cost. At each integrated health system, they interviewed 15–25 leaders and reviewed accounting and operating data. They also corroborated information by using medical and lay literature. They published a summary report, Disruptive Innovation in Integrated Care Delivery Systems, and case studies on six of the integrated health systems; they were still working on the last case study as of January 2013.