When an Umbrella Is Not Just an Umbrella

A lot of innovation comes from simply looking fresh at a problem, or at something that has grown so familiar to us that we no longer even see it as a problem.  Saying something is "just the way it is" doesn't mean that is the way it has to be.

Here are a couple great non-healthcare examples of this that healthcare could learn from.

Let's start with umbrellas.

We all have an umbrella.  Many of us have more than one.  We know what they look like and what they do.  They've been around for thousands of years, without much change in the basic design.  As Cheeky Umbrella says:

Of course these ancient versions of the modern day rain umbrellas were designed and built with very different materials...but the canopy shape is very similar to the products seen today.

And, unfortunately, most of us know how they fail.  Given a strong enough wind -- and it doesn't have to be all that strong -- they not only fail in their purpose but can get destroyed, turning inside out.  We accept that, because that's just their limitation.  That's just the physics of umbrellas.

That's the wrong way to look at it, thought a Dutch design and engineering student named Gerwin Hoogendoorn.  Not the physics of umbrellas; we should be looking at the physics of windsurfing.  And so was born the "storm-proof" umbrella, the Senz. 

Mr. Hoogendoorn says he can hold his umbrella with two fingers in 40 mph, and the company claims their umbrellas can withstand winds of over 70 mph.  Check out their video:

 Can your umbrella do that?

Senz actually dates back to 2006, but I hadn't heard of it until the Washington Post wrote about it a few days ago.   Mr. Hoodendoorn explained:

Our umbrella is different.  If the wind gets underneath, then it catches the backside of the umbrella, causing it to turn into the same direction of the wind.  This is what you want because the rain is almost always coming from the direction of the wind.

Or, more succinctly, “Like a windsurfer, the idea is to use the wind to your advantage.”

An umbrella is an umbrella is an umbrella...until it is something very different.

Example number two: building a house.

Again, this is something most of us are familiar with.   We may not have built one ourselves, but we've probably seen it done.  We know the basic steps, and the kinds of people it takes to build one -- carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers and so on. 

As with the umbrella, the basics haven't changed all that much in the past couple thousand years.  Sure, the materials are sometimes -- but not always -- different, electricity and indoor plumbing are common (at least in developed countries), but many of those skilled laborers from 2,000 years ago could easily work on a construction site today. 

Enter 3D printing.  As in, 3D printing a house.  Check out this video:

A house  built within 24 hours, largely using 3D printing, and costing under $10,000.  New Story, a non-profit dedicated to affordable housing, thinks it can do the same for under $4,000.  Their CEO told Fast Company: "We thought, what would it look like to have more of an exponential breakthrough for such a big challenge?"  That led them to 3D printing, and a prototype they unveiled at SXSW last month.  

New Story estimates the construction will eventually only require 2 to 4 workers, using a 3D printer that currently costs around $100,000 and that should be able to produce 1,000 homes.  

The idea is taking hold all over the world, with leading companies based in Russia, China, Italy, and the U.S..  Dubai wants to be the world's 3D printing hub, with a goal of 3D printing 25% of every building by 2030. 

As Christopher Mimms wrote:

the more you examine the basics—the way the technology could potentially save energy, materials and time—the more it starts to feel like an idea that just might work.

Our grandchildren may look at how we now build buildings much like we look at how cars were made before Henry Ford introduced the assembly line...or as our children will look at assembly lines that use humans instead of robots.  That is, as the past.  In fact, they're already 3D printing electric cars. 

Healthcare can learn from all this.

Healthcare is already on the 3D printing train.  People have been experimenting with it for some time, and the FDA has even issued a guidance.  Human organs, prescription drugs, tissues, medical devices; each of them is going to have its 3D printing moment and movement. 

We've got robots, and we're going to have more.  We've got implantable and ingestible chips, and we're going to have more.  We're finally realizing we need to deal with the health of our microbiome, and we're developing treatments that do that. 

That's all great, but it's like the umbrella example: what problems are we not solving because we think they are just the way it is?   

Most of our health problems stem not from failures of treatments, but from our health habits.  Most of our cost problems -- in the U.S., anyway -- stem less from the acknowledged unnecessary care but from the prices of our care. 

We hyper-specialize our medical professionals, while at the same time talking about the interconnectedness within our bodies.  We restrict the practice of medicine despite skepticism about how well that licensing is serving us. 

We allow more physicians to be gobbled up by health systems despite lack of evidence that this improves quality or reduces costs, and allow increased consolidation within markets despite solid evidence this increases costs. 

We've become so used to the problems of our healthcare system that, although we may complain about them, we often simply take them for granted, rather than finding new ways to solve them.  We focus much of our innovation on the margins, making improvements to the existing healthcare system, without fundamentally reshaping it.

If, after thousands of years of building houses, we can revolutionize the time, labor, and cost to build them, then we can do the same with how we deliver health care.  If, after thousands of years of the same basic design, we can finally figure out how to "storm-proof" umbrellas, then we can do the same for how we protect our health. 

Healthcare needs some Gerwin Hoogendoorns.