Jules Verne and Healthcare Innovation

So I admit I am somewhat of a nerd... I was watching the Discovery Channel today and saw a show about Jules Verne. It got me thinking about the Masters In Healthcare Innovation program I am currently studying.

Jules was initially a shunned stockbroker. Repeatedly denied credability due to his outlandish ideas and science fiction. But as history has shown, he predicted the submarine, flying machines, space travel, dictators, world demise, and diseases. He was a true innovator, before the word innovation was buzzing the world.

So how does this relate to Healthcare Innovation. In much the same way Verne was shunned, the MHI students at some point feel the same way. They are the groups of people that don't fit the traditional mold of the healthcare industry. They have ideas, see things differently, and predict changes, well in advance of them happening. Verne found comfort in a group of friends called "The Eleven without Women". The MHI classmates, though with women, provide a similar support structure. A place where the walls of tradition are broken and ideas flow and are accepted without the context of the bottom line or power struggles found in actual hospital politics.

I found on fact very interesting in watching this show. Verne consulted with physicists, mathematicians, visionaries, and designers and calculated the trip to the moon, the weight of the lander, and the power needed to break gravity almost exactly. Decades before NASA was formed Verne calculated within 2 miles the landing spot of the astronauts returning from space in the ocean!!!! That is innovation!!!

So what is the morale of the story. Pay attention to those people you work with who question the status quo and work to change to world. They may be right on! Although questioning is a needed part of innovation.... shooting down ideas with out a pilot is not.... Give it a chance and you may predict the next revolution in healthcare!!!!