If you follow high tech, particularly cell phone announcements, you know that the battle to stay on top has been intense these past years among cell phone manufactures. Palm recently came out with a new phone called the Pre; which is undoubtedly a hail marry to stay relevant in the mobile gadget space.
The all powerful Apple updated the iPhone with the 3GS last month. Google announced their mobile operating system Android about a year ago. And RIM, the company that makes the Blackberry has released the Storm and the Bold in an effort to compete with the iPhone.
Do you remember just a couple of years ago when the hottest mobile phone was the Motorola Razr? Not long ago, it was the King of all phones. Then, Apple came along. The rest is history.
Makes me wonder…
Should I be spending time finding ways to stay relevant or will we always be relevant by virtue of being in the health care field? Are medical practices exempt from innovation or do we not have a need to innovate, develop and implement ways we deliver care in our practices? Will patients continue to settle for a paper driven, long waits, 15 minute (or less) appointment slots and minimal access to doctors? Or should I be focusing on finding ways to eliminate old paradigms?
I’m not arguing I ought to revolutionize primary care. What I’m arguing (or inquiring rather) if we ought to be challenging the status quo as it relates to how we deliver primary care.
On one hand, one may argue that the medical practice will always be the way we know it. But what if it isn’t?
There are people and companies trying to break the model. MinuteClinic is one example. Although their success has yet to be determined, you can’t argue they are challenging the status quo by looking for opportunities to modify the delivery health care.
Have you heard about Hello Health? How about Qliance? Both these companies are also challenging the establishment. Qliance is doing it in a more traditional concierge style and Hello Health in a much more sophisticated Web2.0 way. Doctorsondemand.com is a health care service that leverages telemedicine.
If you think our model can’t be challenged, take a look at the music industry. 
How many stores are selling LP’s or CD’s these days? And the book business? Barnes & Nobles notwithstanding, how many independent book stores have you been to lately?
Have you seen the classified ads in the newspaper? They’re not very many classifieds. Classified ads used to be one of the main sources of revenue for newspapers. Now with online tools such as Craiglist and eBay, there isn’t a need for classified.
So this is my question, is our model the Razr of the medical practice or should we find ways to become the iPhone’s of the private practice?
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I'm a practice administrator at a Pediatric office located in the western suburbs of Chicago. I write mostly about running a small business that happens to be a medical practice.
PediatricInc 
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