Competitive Advantage Case Study

Mayo Clinic’s SPARC Igniting Innovation in Healthcare Delivery

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Abstract:
Mayo Clinic, one of the finest healthcare institutions in the world, established a groundbreaking program in healthcare innovation. At Mayo Clinic, the physicians associated with medical innovation lab called SPARC, had ambitious goals. They wanted to redefine the way healthcare was delivered, remoulding the timeworn ways that doctors and patients used to interact with one another. SPARC was an innovative practice, a management research program, dedicated to identify, develop and measure the impact of innovation. SPARC was the first systematic ‘live clinical laboratory’ in the healthcare industry to explore and test innovations in outpatient healthcare delivery. The highly modular and flexible physical space, dedicated team of experts, unique methodology combined with innovation, hypothesis driven experimentation, as well as ethnographic studies and design made this program very unique in the healthcare setting. However, healthcare analyst wondered if SPARC was a breakthrough concept that would eventually become a benchmark for the industry. It was also debated whether SPARC could give Mayo the push (required to rise from its No. 2 position ) to secure the No.1 position in the list of top hospitals in the US.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To understand how innovation can redefine the way healthcare is delivered
• To understand the role of Mayo Clinic’s Sparc in healthcare.

Keywords : Healthcare, Service Marketing, Mayo Clinic, Medical Innovation, Live Clinic Laboratory, Marketing Strategies Case Study, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Patient Care Experience, Facility Design, Dr. Alan K. Duncan, IDEO, Four Zone Approach, Patient Relationship Marketing (PRM)