I am a fan of Malcolm Gladwell, the writer who has made a career out of figuring out how things work.  With his book, “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference,” he explored the dynamics of social epidemics. More recently he wrote, “Outliers: The Story of Success,” which delved into the many variables involved in determining an individual’s success.

If you are at all interested in how new ideas are formed and how they evolve and develop into products that change the world, I urge you to check out his most recent article in the New Yorker, Creation Myth.

How does all of this apply to QualityMetric and patient-reported outcomes? Well, on one level, the conceptual model described by Mr. Gladwell has much in common with QualityMetric’s own story. But just as importantly, it shows how difficult it can be to bring a big idea like the computer mouse or laser printer to the general population. Now that both are in our homes and so much a part of our daily lives we can’t imagine how difficult it was for their creators to get them here.

I strongly believe that our health status surveys, offering the patient’s perspective on health outcomes, will someday reach the stature of the computer mouse. Something we all use every day. Something that makes our lives easier and we can’t conceive of living without.

Gus