Disturbing – but in a good way

Disruption! After doing many things the same way for a zillion years, healthcare systems and the life sciences have been incrementally – and with ever-greater speed – changing.

Cages are being rattled, taboos tossed into the wheely bin and status quos shattered. Disruption is rocking all over the world. And, what is more, we like it.

In pharma, we aren’t just celebrating women venturing beyond glass ceilings, we are realising that having other gender perspectives improves and revitalises so many conversations. Meanwhile, the limitless benefts of diversity and inclusion are being felt, not just in the corporate infrastructure of industry but in the redesign of pioneering clinical trials.

Change is also afoot in how we stop, collaborate and listen – indeed, it is reverberating in how we create partnerships as well as our approach to climate change. Then there’s waste. We produce a lot of waste in the life sciences but, mercifully, we are now focusing on how we can save lives and Planet Earth.

On the subject of waste, we know the NHS also has to change. We, the public, are beginning to cock an eyebrow at how ‘our’ healthcare albatross is able to waste so much. At last, we are beginning to ask why the appetite of the NHS money vortex – into which funding is unendingly shovelled – never translates into improvement.

Ultimately, we must continue to discover and conquer summits that commit to modernisation. Diference is the new buzzword and the only way to use it without sounding corny is to truly embrace disruption or, even better, be an exponent of it.