[kyro]

One thing I've noticed that has generated a ton of ideas, particularly within the hospital setting I'm in, is to listen to all the questions staff members ask one another. Who's doing that? When's this happening? How do I do that? etc. They're all seemingly mundane questions that get asked on a daily basis, but they give you great insight to the daily frustrations that people have come to accept (that's why they're boring everyday questions). They also often shed light on a lot of the accessory tasks people endure in order to accomplish their main job.

As an example: in a hospital, we have the "sign out sheet" which is a list of the current patients and all of their important data. These sheets are usually manually updated and it's a very, very tedious task; you've got to make sure all the dosages are current, and they're already in the system! Anyway, I kept noticing the residents would ask one another if they had updated the sheet and realized this was a pain-point that's become an accepted part of the day-to-day medical routine. That's just one example.

Good problems don't have to elicit noticeable frustration. In fact, I'd say many of the best problems around are ones that have pushed people past frustration and into acceptance.

[carbocation]

> As an example: in a hospital, we have the "sign out sheet" which is a list of the current patients and all of their important data.

This. Seriously, the Institute of Medicine has implicitly decided that this is the problem that it wants the world's entrepreneurs to solve.

The IOM observed that there were many errors made in medicine. Errors in medicine harm and kill people.

Many people believe that doctors (residents) who sleep too little are more liable to commit errors. They believe that a lack of sleep is dangerous to patients; therefore, the ACGME instituted duty hour restrictions on residents.

As a consequence of this, residents work for fewer consecutive hours. Necessarily, they "hand off" their patients to one another more frequently than they did in the past. As you can imagine, there is also risk in the handoff process.

The IOM and the ACGME, via their pronouncements and policies, have decided that long shifts are too dangerous to try to solve. Instead, they are willing to throw all of their eggs into the "handoffs must be safer than long shifts" basket. Handoffs are dangerous, hard, annoying, and they happen at least twice per shift per attending, resident, and midlevel provider every day. I don't mean to tell you how to solve handoff problems, but I do want to underscore the problem that kyro has identified.

[Alex3917]

For what it's worth, here is a reading list that I think does a pretty good job providing the context needed to understand most of the problems in US health/medicine right now:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus11.pdf - Health, United States, 2011

http://wps.pearsoneducation.nl/wps/media/objects/13902/14236... - To Err Is Human

- http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=192842 - JAMA: Institute of Medicine Medical Error Figures Are Not Exaggerated (Context for To Err Is Human)

- http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=192908#RE... - JAMA: Is US Health Really the Best in the World? (More context for To Err Is Human)

http://www.innovationlabs.com/summit/summit3/readings/Schust... - How good is the quality of health care in the United States?

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/F... - Why Not The Best (Commonwealth Fund)

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309091179 - Health Literacy: A Prescription To End Confusion (IOM)

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6121 - IOM Workshop: Antiomicrobrial Resistance - Issues and Options

Books:

Anatomy of an Epidemic (Mental health)

The Emperor's New Drugs (Mental health)

Crazy Like Us (Mental health)

The Truth About Drug Companies (Pharma)

Overdosed America (Pharma)

Health Behavior Change and Treatment Adherence: Evidence-based Guidelines for Improving Healthcare (Medical adherence)

This list doesn't do a great job of covering certain niche problems like current issues in drug discovery or electronic records, but I think it provides enough context to understand whatever issues aren't covered directly. One of the quirks about medicine is that a lot of the data we have on even the most important issues (e.g. antibiotic resistance) is either 10+ years old or else woefully incomplete, which is extremely unfortunate but on the plus side it makes it actually fairly easy to learn about what would otherwise be way too complicated for anyone not in the industry to understand.

[neurotech1]

Capt. Sullenberger has quite an interest in applying the lessons learnt as a fighter pilot, squadron safety officer, and legendary airline pilot.. to healthcare. This was part of his consulting business, before US Airways 1549 made him famous.

In healthcare, checklists improve safety, but so do other procedural changes. If a pilot has a mishap, the FAA/NTSB always investigates. Hospitals rarely investigate patient mishaps (deaths, malpractice etc.) unless there is a lawsuit filed, and state medical boards rarely investigate either.

[6ren]

  The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in
  trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
  unreasonable man.   George Bernard Shaw

Most people are reasonable; most founders are unreasonable.

[tchock23]

I completely agree with you and have come across the same finding, but from an entirely different perspective...

Short of scratching your own itch, a great way to come up with startup ideas is through careful observation of others, and particularly those who could be defined as a "market" of sorts (e.g., those in a hospital setting, business, etc.). Observing behaviors and the language people use when they are trying to accomplish a task is an amazing way of developing new ideas, which can easily lead to new startup ideas.

I've been in qualitative market research for about 10 years now and by far the most effective studies I have run for my clients has been through observational and ethnographic research methods where we just follow along as people try to perform a task. This is the best way to uncover unmet needs and ideas for new products.

If you're stuck for a startup idea, just ask someone in an industry you're personally interested in if you can watch them do their job for a day. Just sit there and observe - ask questions only at the end.

If you really watch carefully, that will produce more ideas than you know how to handle (although I still agree with pg's original point - solving your own problems is the best way to go because you'll be more likely to stick with it through the inevitable ups and downs of startup life).

[aswanson]

Doctors and their offices still insist on using fax machines. In anno domini 2012. Seriously.

[pknerd]

Finding a solution is not enough. You must have a strong convincing power and ability to tackle with employees who will create obstacles for the new system.

[RyanMcGreal]

Required reading: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.

[charleshaanel]

I've just wishlisted this on Amazon. Thanks for posting it. It follows along very well with what I'm reading from Michael Gerber's E-Myth (also a bestseller on processes)

http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...

[kyro]

I've read it, and it's a great book. Another I just started reading is Safe Patients. Smart Hospitals. by Peter Provonost, who's the guy who actually conceived the idea of hospital checklists that Atul Gawande built upon.

[eli_gottlieb]

Yeah, I mostly think of ideas by listening to what people complain about.

[hnriot]

Or in PG speak, you're noticing startup ideas, not thinking them up.