Reflecting on progress and innovation in healthcare, it occurred to me. 

Our greatest strength has become a weakness that is harming us.  

Our strength of deep expertise combined with firmly held beliefs and knowledge allows us to act decisively when people need it. You don’t want a surgeon pondering too long if you’re bleeding out on the operating table.  

But for innovation to happen, we need deep expertise combined with flexibly held beliefs. We need to be happy to question the status quo, to imagine better, and to admit where we are wrong. 

Medicine doesn’t need ‘tech’ coming in to save the day. They might have flexibly held beliefs, but they miss the deep knowledge and understanding of how healthcare actually works. 

And to all non-healthcare people, we certainly don’t need firmly held beliefs with weak expertise as Facebook loves to promote…  

We need people in healthcare who are prepared to imagine better, and then people in healthcare who work together to find a better path and make it that way.