A lot of physicians face barriers when trying to launch a new innovation because it becomes another thing they have to do on top of everything else, notes Molly Coye, Executive in Residence at AVIA. What can we do about this?

There are clinicians who got into health care to help people, and there are clinicians who get into health care for other reasons, says Victor Montori, Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic. “It’s an enormous economy; it’s an enormous opportunity. But for those who got into health care to help people, it’s become very frustrating for them to have their day, their hour, their minute with the patient crowded by someone else’s agenda.”

These days, Montori says, clinicians have to pay attention to the “dings and dongs of the medical record because that’s the documentation, and billing, and that’s what we’re going to be held accountable for, oh and by the way, there’s a patient here in the room I might ask, how are you doing today?”

It’s a way of eroding into the soul of people, adds Montori, citing the familiar statistic that 50% of physicians — more in some cases — are burnt out. He believes that some of it has to with all the novelties thrown at the clinical encounter, crowding out actual care. He sees the merit in innovations that allow for people to be in each other’s homes virtually, so that they can see exactly what the context of the patient is.

“There are ways of doing innovation that protect and support clinician’s instincts. If we can crowd that space out and allow them to just do their thing, and patients can benefit from that, then technology has done its job — to get rid of all the stuff that can easily be taken on by technology, and allow humans to do the human thing,” Montori says.

From the NEJM Catalyst event The Future of Care Delivery: Relentless Redesign at Providence St. Joseph Health, January 19, 2017.