TM
COMMUNICATIONS
The term disruptive innovation was coined in the early 1990s by Harvard Business
School professor Clayton Christensen. Disruptive innovations are not breakthrough
technologies that make good products better; rather they are innovations that
make products and services more accessible and affordable, thereby making them
available to a larger population. We have seen many disruptive innovations over
the past decade like Uber and Airbnb. Teledentistry is a disruptive innovation and a
Our Model Is Stuck
The long-held model and shared assumption for oral health care is that Dentists’
those who are associated with a stand-alone dentistry practice.
Most dentists and practices continue to follow the traditional business model.
divorced from other dentistry practices in an entirely different world from the
overall health care system.
In March 2018, appeared in the Journal of the
American Dental Association. Marko Vujicic, PhD, ADA Health Policy Institute said
in that article, “We will not see major expansions in dental care use and sustained
improvements in oral health in the coming years, especially among those with the
highest needs, under the status quo model. The dental care system needs major
reforms.” The article maps out what the author calls disruptive changes.
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