Upload
sc-ctsi-at-usc-and-chla
View
278
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Why aren’t we solving the greatest scientific problems of the world today? Innovation is critical to our nation’s scientific enterprise. However, creative thinking has been on the decline and is not generally taught in academic institutions. Renowned public health scientist and clinician, Dr. Roberta Ness, Dean of the University of Texas Health School of Public Health, believes that students, established scientists, researchers, and engineers can learn to be more innovative. Through her book Innovation Generation: How to Produce Creative and Useful Scientific Ideas, and graduate course on Innovative Thinking at the University of Texas, Dr. Ness provides the framework and tools to “think outside the box.” She shared these basic concepts in this one-hour lecture. Dr. Ness is a leading researcher in women’s health and widely known for her efforts to bridge from research to policy. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Citation preview
Roberta Ness, MD, PhD
Dean, School of Public Health M. David Low Chair and
James W. Rockwell Professor in Public Health Vice President, Innovation
Houston Center for Innovative Generation The University of Texas
Health Science Center at Houston
Center for Innovation Generation Website https://sph.uth.edu/research/centers/ingen
http://youtu.be/B2pjN4Ne1ag
So You Think You Can Innovate?
Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH James W. Rockwell Professor in Public Health University of Texas School of Public Health Vice President, Innovation UTHealth
University of Southern California September 15, 2014
Presented by the Education, Career Development, and Ethics Program (ECDE) of the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) in collaboration With KSOM Office of Research Seminar Series & NIH T32HD060549 Training Program
Surprise in the service of health
and prosperity
• Make existing resources better, faster, cheaper
• Create new technologies, breakthroughs
Innovation Defined
Teaching Innovation
Can innovation be taught?
Does It Work? Clapham et al: Meta-analysis of 40 studies Scott et al: Meta-analysis of 70 studies 2 – 3X increases in fluency, novelty, and originality Improvements in problem-solving, attitude and work performance
Does It Work?
Structured programs demonstrated effects independent of: • Age • Gender • Intellectual capacity • Professional/academic setting
Conceptual Components
Recognizing and finding alternatives
to habitual cognitive patterns
Learning to use tools that enhance
generative ideation
Aligning divergent
thinking with the scientific
method
Overcoming Habitual Cognitive Patterns and Their Implications
• Frames define human communication and thus thinking
• Frames are expectations which we use to interpret new information and draw inferences
Big “I” Innovation Means Thinking Outside Frames
• Cell phone • GPS • Safety of Anesthesia
Little “i” Innovation
Big “I” Innovation • Transistor • Theory of special relativity • Germ theory
Threats to Mankind Require Big “I” Innovation • Income/Education disparities • Alzheimer’s disease • Global warming • Emerging infections • Obesity
Example: Expectation in going to a restaurant
Gary and Nancy are lying on the floor dead. Around them
is a puddle of water and some broken glass. What are
the circumstances of their death?
Answer: They are fish and their fish tank broke – thus they suffocated.
Emotion
Remove street signs from city centers
Metaphors and Frames • War on
cancer
• Cancer as neighbor
VERSUS
Tools that Enhance Idea Generation
Tool 1: Finding the Right Question • Right time and place
Example: Cervical cancer as an STI - needed PCR to identify HPV
Tool 1: Finding the Right Question • Big questions
Example: Jeremy Morris, father of physical activity: “What about social class alters CVD risk?”
Tool 2: Observation
• Normal observation becomes complacent
• Normal observation is biased by expectations
Tool 2: Observation
• Marshall and Warren win Novel Prize for discovery of H. pylori
Tool 3: Analogy
• Kekule: Structure of benzene as a snake seizing its own tail
• Bell: Electromagnetic vibration as human voice
• Jenner: Cowpox protection as smallpox protection
Tool 4: Juggling Opposites Deduction and Induction
• Induction: Mendel observed thousands of pea crosses
• Deduction: Einstein moved from axioms to theorums
Tool 4: Deduction and Induction • Innovation combines
induction and deduction • Eg: Darwin observed
beak size variability in finches. Through a leap of logic he inferred that some beaks out-competed others in a given environment
Tool 5: Change Your Point of View • Darwin imagined
himself as a plant • Einstein imagined
traveling at the speed of light
• Montessori imagined herself as a child
Tool 5: Change Your Point of View
• Imagine yourself as a teenager in West Texas deciding whether or not to keep an unintended pregnancy
Tool 6: Broadening Your Perspective • Ancel Keys: Father of
the Mediterranean Diet • Expanded his research
network to create the first international comparisons of heart disease: Japan, Greece, Finland
Tool 6: Broadening Your Perspective
• How can we provide more nutritious foods in America’s lunchrooms?
• How do we get America to eat better?
Tool 7: Reversal
• Serendipity: a “happy accident” • Alexander Fleming: father of antibiotics • Joseph Goldberger: presence of
infection vs. absence of nutrient as the cause of pellagra
Tool 7: Reversal • Medicine: Presence of disease • Public Health: Absence of disease
• Implications for obliviousness to absence • Hard to get people excited • Hard to get compliance
Tool 8: Reorganization and Rearrangement
• Functional fixedness: a particular object implies a particular use
• Candle experiment: attach the candle to the wall
Candle Book of matches Box of thumbtacks
Tool 8: Reorganization and Rearrangement
• Combining disciplines • Nanoparticle engineers and
pharmacologists to create new systems for drug delivery
Tool 8: Reorganization and Rearrangement
• How might you design a neonatal incubator for developing, resource-poor settings?
Tool 9: Brainstorming Group
DARPA: RED BALLOONS Challenge: Ten 8 foot high, fixed bright red weather balloons at random locations around the U.S. $40,000 to the first person or team to find all 10 balloons.
• “C” Factor • Groups performance on wide range of
intelligence tasks • Not strongly correlated with individual
intelligence • Correlated with social sensitivity (e.g.,
inclusiveness) of group
Woolley, Science 2010
Tool 9: Power of Groups
Tool 9: Brainstorming Group
• Generates > 100 ideas/hour • Divergent thinking first • Convergent thinking next
Harmonizing • Idea Generation and the
Scientific Method
Hypothesis Expectation
ObservationInference
Define the problem
Gather information
Separate raw inputs from frames
Generate alternative, original ideas
Converge on most useful insights/hypothesis
Develop action plan to test hypothesis
Stepwise Harmonization
Death: scary, sober, mysterious
Approach with awe,
fear
Few people have advance
directives
Thinking Inside the Box
• Death and taxes Ø Tax form for advanced directives
Thinking Outside the Box
Summary Innovative thinking can be taught
Key is thinking outside frames
Tools include:
Alternative framing and metaphors
Kenner observation
Awareness of cognitive biases
Analogy
Expansion
Reversal
PO
Etc