The Paperback Book. Rick Mercer. 2007. ISBN 9780385665193. A collection of Rick Mercer Report Rants.    I think Mercer often  defines us as Canadians (by showing us how much fun the others are having) . Certainly if you lived someplace else, it would be hard to find this so funny.   I could not read this in a hurry as most of this stuff is that  funny.  His satire makes you think , regardless of if you agree with  him or not.  A great book for when you are sitting on the tarmac in Toronto waiting for the de-icing crew to get to your plane,  again. And you have four hours to go before you get to another cold and snowy place, where the streets have still not been plowed or sanded.  Give it to your shut in Mother who has been unable to negotiate the ice covered walks for 10 days – she will thank you for it., while feeling just a little guilty at laughing  at that nice Mr Harper (yet she never trusted that Mulroney fella)

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The Innovator’s Prescription. A disruptive solution to healthcare Clayton M. Christensen, Grossman & Hwang. 2008. ISBN 9780071592086. Ten years in the making, this is another very useful analysis by the Christensen team.    I quickly found seven immediate money making ideas for the tech industry in healthcare in this book.  As ever, the book is clear and well written, with fascinating footnotes in every chapter (almost a book within the book) . The author(s) are no fans of govt all in one funded ( ie Canada-style) healthcare – but they have an equal dislike of the present US model.

He echoes one of the results of the Rocket Builders – NRC Healthcare opportunities study – which was that opportunities lie in the interstitials between silos and layers o f the US and Canada system.  He extends it further by illustrating the fundamental and repairable structural flaws in the present systems.  The disruptive opportunities he shows up are very near, real and often just waiting for th erigth group to sieze onto them.

As ever he points out how to start with a less than ideal solution for the unserved market – which is easier in the US vs Canada, where we have a poor but working solution – we then require a dramatically better solution for disruption. He also suggests that a democracy is not the tool to effect change, unless the change is so subtle, few notice.  For every change proposed in a democracy, someone will lose from the status quo, and they have lots of political levers to pull to keep things the same.  He also repeats that it is impossible to effect the change from within- reminding us  that IBM was the only company to survive multiple disruptions, each time through first creating a distinct stand alone division , outside of the corporate culture.

Doctors  will cry out No! when reading the section on commoditization of health care services  – but if they look around they will see that it is happening . Using Christensen’s view, hospitals should finally be able to decide what type of business they are in (He IDs three distinct types)  and then they will be able to carve ot the metrics to help them change to a sustainable model.

A very good book for all of us, expecially if you have any interest in heathcare and healthcare dollars.

Get it here

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