What are other disruptive innovations in healthcare based on your observation and research?

Overtime, sophisticated and expensive products/services are converted into simpler and more
affordable ones. This process is called disruption. Twin (2021) explains how innovations become
disruptive when they “displace long-standing, established competitors”. A great example of this, is the
Blockbuster vs. Netflix scenario mentioned in the Harvard business review we read (Christensen, et al.,
2015).

Disruptive innovations are important because, in a way, they drive the improvement and
development of products/services (Christensen, et al., 2015). They stimulate organizations to think more
critically, and shed light on questions like, “how can we make our products/services more appealing to
customers?” or, “how can we gain competitive advantage in the marketplace?”.

Disruptive innovations have proved to be helpful to our world in several ways, especially within
the realm of health care. Take the automation of COVID-19 antibody testing, for example. Training
employees to record and update patient’s status during the COVID-19 pandemic was expensive, time-
consuming, and complex. This process became much more affordable when bots were programmed to
record and update patient’s COVID-19 status themselves (Making time matter with intelligent
automation, 2020). This system was developed by Darren Atkins, used as a way to decrease the
workload of administrative frontline health care workers. It not only saved time for workers but also
sped up the process of data collection (Making time matter with intelligent automation, 2020). This
disruptive innovation has proved to be extremely useful in a time of health crisis.

There is a plethora of disruptive innovations in health care. New and improved innovations are
continuously and rapidly emerging. Other notable mentions are mobile health applications, remote
care/telemedicine, retail clinics, and 3D printing (Sounderajah et al., 2020 & Shaw & Chisholm, 2020).

Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M., & McDonald, R. (2015). Disruptive innovation? twenty years after the
introduction of the theory, we revisit what it does - and doesn't - explain. Harvard Business
Review, 93(12), 44.

Twin, A. (2021, November 16). Disruptive innovation definition. Investopedia. Retrieved November 16,
2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disruptive-innovation.asp.

Making time matter with intelligent automation. Blue Prism. (2020, August 27). Retrieved November 17,
2021, from https://www.blueprism.com/resources/webinars/making-time-matter-with-intelligent-
automation/.

Sounderajah, V., Patel, V., Varatharajan, L., Harling, L., Normahani, P., Symons, J., Barlow, J., Darzi, A., &
Ashrafian, H. (2020). Are disruptive innovations recognised in the healthcare literature? A systematic
review. BMJ Innovations, 7(1), 208–216. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000424

Shaw, B., & Chisholm, O. (2020). Creeping through the backdoor: Disruption in medicine and health.
Frontiers in Pharmacology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00818