The UDI Program does hold powerful promise for the future. Unfortunately, many of our most important customers underestimate the incredible amount of change management that will be required in order to implement the program correctly. They also seem to have no idea how difficult it will be to transform the data generated by UDI into meaningful improvements in patient safety.
One way to help people understand is to relate these struggles to terms that they might have experienced in their own lives. In a discussion earlier today preparing for an upcoming panel presentation on UDI, I stumbled onto something that might be helpful.
There have been many changes to surgical procedures over the years. Each one of them started out as a new, unproven procedure. Someone had to invent the procedure. They had to try it out on a patient. When it worked, they had to document the procedure. They then had to show it to others. Once other surgeons agreed that it was an improvement over the status quo, they had to learn how to do the procedure in the same way and practice on their own. Over time, the repitition would eventually become the new practice.
We are in the earliest stages of UDI adoption. We still don't know all of the ways it can eventually improve healthcare. We've got to slowly build up our portfolio and then train others with a similar approach.
What do you think?
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