Technology is the Means, Not an End

Technology isn’t the Goal

Too often in orthodontists treat technology and understanding just how to use it as the goal, but this approach inevitably leads to failure and frustration. Technology is simply a tool of empowerment and we cannot and should not forget that what we do is about people and the effect we have on them. The real questions that we should be asking are whether the treatment and the experience we are designing are truly maximizing the patient’s benefit and making their lives easier?

Digital transformation is hard and I see many orthodontists approaching it with caution, and even fear, especially when it comes to their businesses, but it is just a means to an end. Behind every bracket, every ClinCheck, every email there’s a person, and we need to ask ourselves honestly how our choices are improving their experience and impacting their life?

Over at Nike for instance, they ask themselves 5 questions about every single product:

1. Does it help athletes get better?
2. Does it have the potential of reaching a million new people?
3. Can it be explained in two sentences or less?
4. Would we use it ourselves?
5. Is it simple, human and indispensable?

Nothing in life that is meaningful comes easy, but if you are focused on generating great Value-on-Investment for your patients, the ‘returns’ will follow. Technology is powerful, but it is useless without vision. You first have to be able to imagine a better way and an easier way, before we can begin to understand how we should leverage technology to achieve it.