Most people will say that they value creativity. And they really believe that they do. But new research out of The University of Pennsylvania, UNC-Chapel Hill and Cornell shows that, in fact, we harbor a bias against creative solutions in favor of those we percieve as safer and more practical. The reason is because most of us have a desire to minimize uncertainty. And creativity and innovation introduce a lot of uncertainty.
So what does this mean for medical device designers? It means that you need to be aware of this bias at every turn, and you need to work hard to counteract it. Scientific advancement is of course predicated on creativity and innovation. But there are a lot of great ideas that have been abandoned because people were afraid to pursue novel, creative solutions and instead chose to play it safe.