dose ESCALATION PLAYBOOK

In Healthcare’s Digital Dawn, we explored the staggering speed of technological adoption — from ChatGPT reaching 100 million users in months, to healthcare’s own long journey with innovations like e-prescribing. The conclusion was clear: we’re in Phase 1 of digital transformation, and the pace is only accelerating.

What’s more, the future of care is being shaped faster than most organizations can react, let alone lead. We must rethink the implications of "business as usual." Maybe the new normal is… “business unusual”.

This moment calls for more than awareness — it calls for a Continuous Innovation Infusion — a new playbook for leading in this era of exponential change.

In this next chapter of the Dose of Innovation series, we shift from recognizing the wave to riding it — exploring how healthcare executives and innovators can respond with purpose, urgency, and a daily dose of boldness.

Four strategies stand out as essential — together, they are the Dose Escalation Protocol, a new playbook for leading in Healthcare's Digital Dawn:

1. Ride the Innovator’s Slipstream
In cycling, the rider just behind the leader gains speed by riding in their slipstream. In healthcare, this means staying close to the front-runners in tech adoption — learning from their wins, sidestepping their missteps, and positioning yourself to leapfrog when the moment is right. The key is to be in the race, building capability and readiness for the next acceleration.

2. Join the Democratization Movement
Innovation is no longer the sole domain of R&D labs or executive boards. With tools like generative AI in the hands of millions, clinicians, patients, and partners are solving problems and creating value in real time. Leaders must embrace this shift — empowering experimentation, scaling what works, and being more openminded than ever as the best ideas can come from anywhere.

3. Embrace Contrarian Wisdom
In a world where yesterday’s impossibility is tomorrow’s possibility, “conventional wisdom” is a liability. Contrarian leaders seek out perspectives that challenge the status quo, pairing curiosity with courage to explore untested paths. This isn’t disruption for its own sake — it’s disruption in service of better outcomes, faster.

4. Win Hearts, Widen Ripples
Strategies and skills set the course — but winning hearts creates the momentum to sustain it. In an age of rapid change, leaders must connect deeply with their teams, address fears, and anchor innovation in shared passion and purpose. When alignment is strong, the ripple effect turns bold ideas into lasting impact.

More to come …
The next wave of Dose of Innovation articles will dive deeper into each part of The Formula — breaking them into three actionable steps apiece so healthcare leaders and innovators can move from insight to impact. Whether it’s learning, loading, and leveraging in the Innovator’s Slipstream… reimagining, reinventing, and revitalizing in the Democratization Movement… uncoupling, designing the uncanny, and creating the undeniable through Contrarian Wisdom… or fueling passion, purpose, and PX² to Win Hearts and Widen Ripples — each framework is designed to turn ambition into execution.

The therapeutic window of opportunity is wide open — but it won’t stay that way forever. In a world where hesitation costs more than risk, to pause is to fall behind. The pace is blistering, the rules are shifting, and the leaders who act with purpose, urgency, and a daily dose of boldness will shape what’s next in healthcare. Now is the moment to step in, step up, and lead in this era of business unusual.