THINK BIG, START SMALL, MOVE FAST

A Blueprint for Transformation from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation

By Nicholas LaRusso, M.D. * Barbara Spurrier, MHA * Gianrico Farrugia, M.D.

There’s an elephant in the (waiting) room – the current state of healthcare, in desperate need of an overhaul. By reframing the entire healthcare experience – using four distinct areas of strategic focus – the Mayo Clinic has created a compelling blueprint for innovation which allows it to be nimble, disciplined, and most importantly, effective.

Complex environments can’t be broken down and rebuilt into new systems and cultures. But organizations can reframe their approaches and apply the ideas of transformative innovation. THINK BIG, START SMALL, MOVE FAST (McGraw-Hill; September, 2014) examines how the healthcare system embarked on a series of revamping engagement platforms, resulting in excellence in Practice, Connected Care, and Health and Well-Being. Its Innovation Accelerator continually transfuses the organization with fresh ideas, technologies, and approaches.

The Mayo Clinic is synonymous with world-class medical care for some of the most challenging illnesses we may have in our lifetimes, providing cutting-edge care for highly complex conditions. Its mandate to redesign, reorganize, and rethink how its entire system was constructed, and touching on the very composition of its innovation drivers, can create a self-fulfilling prophecy of sustained innovation.

“We may be employed by one of the top medical practices in the world, and we may be from the top eschelons of our professions. But we know that we do not have the exact solution – a “prescription” – for all that ails health car, let alone, an exact solution to bring you success in the oh-so-elusive frontiers of innovation.”

About the Authors:

Dr. Nicholas LaRusso (Rochester, MN) is the founding Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation and the current Medical Director of the Center for Connected Care, the Charles H. Weinman Endowed Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology, and a Distinguished Investigator of the Mayo Clinic.

Barbara Spurrier (Northfield, MN) is the founding Administrative Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation.

Gianrico Farrugia (Rochester, MN) is the Director for the Center for Individualized Medicine and the Associate Director for the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic. He is a practicing Gastroenterologist and a professor of medicine and physiology in the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic.