Navigating Disruption: Week 2
A Live Documentary of a Disruptor’s Disruption
We are “disruptors.” We are a healthcare technology start-up focused on eliminating waste in the healthcare system by disrupting traditional operating practices. But now COVID-19 has disrupted the disruptors. Throughout the pandemic, we will document the thoughts we have, the plans we make, the risks we take, and the choices we face. Here is our story, one week at a time.
Recap:
Week 0 — Flying High
Week 1 — The Crashing Lows
Week 1.5 — Our Ethos
Week 2: Do the right thing
Communication, or perhaps more accurately, “interaction” is critical for start-ups. Beginning with explaining the functionality and value of our products and services to getting a “foot-in-the-door” to instilling confidence and trust, to closing a sale, customer interaction essential. We are a high-touch, enterprise-focused technology company. We engage with hospitals, health systems, and expansive clinical practices. We spend 100% of our time with healthcare systems, from Los Angeles to New York. And now are our interactions, our lifeblood, are about to be cut off.
There’s an old saying, “if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” So how do we become part of the solution? We do the right thing and offer up the best we have.
First, we release the following email to all our clients,
Our priority, during this COVID-19 outbreak, is to support the wellbeing of your patients and caregivers.
Based on the dynamic nature of the outbreak, we will limit our onsite visits to management and non-patient care locations. We have re-sequenced our project plans and approach to accomplish the desired outcome by prioritizing data collection, analysis, interviews, and virtual shadowing.
We will re-evaluate future onsite visits based on the ground situation. All our interactions will be in non-patient care locations and via electronic medium.
Our priority is the team’s wellbeing and the patients we collectively support.
We believe that true partnerships evolve during times of need, and we are proud to demonstrate unconditional support.
Thanks,
Edgility
Unfortunately, this means we are not going to kick off our new contracts, unthinkable only a week ago. However, thankful responses from our anxious and appreciative clients started to roll in, and in this, we found a renewed sense of purpose.
Based on the document Lisa drafted last week, we started developing a toolset to help manage the inevitable increase in clinical activity COVID-19 was about to unleash and integrate it into the Edgility platform. Perhaps due to a feeling of helplessness amid the growing epidemic, we found ourselves developing day and night.
At our next daily team touchpoint, we discussed the best way to distribute the Toolkit. Everyone was excited and eager to display our progress — and our unique contribution to the effort! While Lisa and I recognized the potential and the value of the Toolkit, Chris reminded us that this is not the time to be selling. Nor is this the best time to be discussing contracts or asking IT departments for data and resources. Disappointing? Yes, but there is an undeniable truth in what Chris was saying. Next up, Plan B.
As a Technologist, I understand the power of “open-source” — a product or code that can be consumed or adopted by anyone, without charge. So, I floated the idea of releasing the Toolkit as an open-source offering. The implication, of course, is that it would generate no revenue. We would not be paid for our work. The agreement to proceed was unanimous and surprisingly easy after Chris pulled up two of our core principles: “take care of our patients and take care of the people that take care of the patients.” The open-source offering would check both the boxes. Plan B adopted!
Lisa and I immediately focused on converting our intellectual property into an open-source consumable Toolkit, and Heather began to work, creating the delivery mechanism.
By the end of the week, we had completed our first iteration — 7 sections. We made it available, free of charge, to any and every hospital and health system.
Heather published the Toolkit on the Edgility website.
We inherently knew that when a “COVID-19” event enters a community, hospitals and health systems would need to operate in ‘command-center’ mode for extended periods. The COVID-19 outbreak is the text-book example — a quickly accelerating, infectious disease that places enormous demands on the clinical staff and clinical operations. We also understand the need to minimize the impact on those providing care. Their focus should be on the patients and each other. There is little time for error when it comes to outbreaks.
No one is asking for the toolkit. We are unsure how this will be received. We hit publish on the website and rested out mind on the fact that we are attempting to be part of the solution. And that was the right thing to do.
