4.What is the role of designers at the CFI?

How do they facilitate innovation in health care

delivery? How might their contributions compare to those of a management consultant, an
industrial designer, an organizational psychologist, or a poet?
Answer:
Role of Designers at the CFI: CFI or Centre For Innovation was introduced in 2007 at Transform
symposium and it became operational in June 2008. The main goal for establishing CFI was to build a
group dedicated to medical practice innovation by consulting & collaborating with specialists outside of
the medical field. These Specialists who were experts in designing new ideas and process for
accommodating newer and improved service designs were known as Designers.

Main role of designers at CFI and its earlier iteration known as SPARC were as follows:

 Collaborating with In-house Physicians: the primary objective of CFI was to ensure proper
collaboration between the physicians of mayo clinic and the designers for innovative new ideas
and programs regarding service delivery design.
 Observational qualitative Analysis: While physicians at Mayo clinic were trained to look at
problems, projects or programs from a more quantitative and data-oriented standpoint,
designers were tasked to look at these predicaments from a more qualitative standpoint.
 Feedback and Survey about Customer Expectation: Apart from designing programs and
projects, Designers at the CFI also had to conduct research which includes Feedback and survey
about customer satisfaction and expectation.
 Finding new ways of integrating technology in medical care delivery process: Designers had to
look for new avenues to integrate ever improving technological side to their project design. Not
only the designers needed to be in synch with the updated knowledge and required skill set of
the technology, they had to consider any new technology that can be integrated in service
delivery designing.
 Taking more Qualitative approach vs risk averse traditional Approach: Traditionally, Doctors
are known to be more risk-averse and conservative to the new ideas. On the other hand,
designers were known for their flair and more risk-taking mentality. The approaches taken by
the designers were more qualitative in nature even though it contained necessary quantitative
information for the physicians.
 Generating ideas and designs that transcends Mayo Clinic’s traditional cultural values: Even
though Mayo Clinic has some distinct values that defines their legacy, in order to sustain long
 term growth of the organization Mayo Clinic had to adapt to the ever-changing external factors
of the world. As designers were brought in from outside of the traditional medical services
industry, they presented a new and fresh view for the organization’s future.
 Practice of prototyping in conservative healthcare field: Healthcare service is different from
other service industry in terms of propensity to change its aspects. Atop that, risk-averseness
and conservative mindset of the physicians makes it cumbersome to implement any real
changes. Prototyping or starting a program in small scale in this case cam=n help to implement
necessary changes as massive or rapid changes in medical services industry is quite hard to
implement.

Methods of facilitating innovation in health care delivery

o Conducting Field research

o Introducing “rapid Prototyping” to Physicians and to the board of advisors

o Multiple projects of small magnitude rather than a single large impact project.

o Integrating Quantitative approach to their more qualitative research method

Comparison of Contribution with other Professions:

Designers at the CFI were predominantly tasked with coming up with new innovation ideas and service
delivery designs. That’s why, their work processes were vastly different from that of the physicians as
designers required a lot of creative freedom.

The job description of A designer at the CFI of the Mayo Clinic is not that different from an actual
management consultant. A management consultant’s job is to figure out new avenues and ideas as well
as to provide solutions to problems to insure the growth and sustainability of the organization. Similarly,
the designers at the CFI were tasked with figuring out new and improved service delivery design while
addressing existing problems of the clinic & providing solutions to those problems.

Again, the Designer's role at the CFI had both Similarities and Dissimilarities from the role of an
Industrial Designers. Both party’s main role is to find an efficient & effective design for their
organization’s work pattern. While an Industrial designer had to focus more on the function or form of
the product and designed ways to improve the production capability, service designers at the CFI were
more service oriented and focused on the service delivery designs which elicited customer reaction in a
positive manner.
Similarly, the roles of service designers have a deep parity with the roles of an organizational
psychiatrist. But the main difference lies in the responsibility of the concerned parties. While an
organizational psychiatrist only observes the psychological aspects of the primary stakeholders of the
organization and consult the management if required, the role of a service designer extends to not only
observation & reporting but also designing effective programs that mitigates existing problems by
providing long term solutions.

On the other hand, while a poet has boundless creative independence, he/she more often than not
cannot use that freedom to change the aspects of an organizational culture. Service designers, while not
as much as the poets, were granted freedom but with that freedom they were handed responsibilities to
detect problems and create effective service delivery designs that addresses those problems.

o 5.