The importance of creativity in primary care

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Physicians in primary care are accustomed to working under pressure — balancing patient needs, staffing shortages and constantly evolving regulations — but new research suggests they may be overlooking a powerful tool: their own creativity.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health have developed and validated a framework for measuring creativity in primary care teams, published in Health Care Management Review on Friday, August 8.

The five dimensions they identified could help teams assess and strengthen their ability to generate novel, useful solutions to everyday and systemic challenges.

“Our goal was to adapt and refine the concept of team creativity for primary care,” said Yuna Lee, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and assistant professor of health policy and management at Columbia. “Primary care teams can apply these five dimensions to generate creative ideas in their daily work.”

From management theory to medical practice

The study borrowed from decades of management research, where team creativity is recognized as a driver of innovation and efficiency. Using a three-stage approach, the researchers reviewed management literature to define creativity at the team level, convened an expert panel of primary care clinicians, nurses, administrators and researchers to adapt the concept to frontline care, and surveyed 648 members of a large New York health system’s primary care teams to test and refine the framework.

From their research, they identified five key dimensions.

1. Team orientation to creativity: Openness to new ideas and willingness to try them.
2. Team creative processes: Interactions that foster idea generation and adaptation.
3. Job-required creativity: Tasks that explicitly demand new approaches.
4. Team creative outputs: Tangible ideas or solutions produced by the team.
5. Leveraging team creativity: Recognizing, resourcing and rewarding creative efforts.

The last dimension, leveraging creativity, was new to the field and reflects the importance of organizational support.

Why it matters now

The researchers argue that creativity is not just a nice-to-have but a practical, low-cost capability that can improve care quality and operational efficiency. In complex environments — those shaped by high patient acuity, care coordination demands and clinician burnout — creative problem-solving may be essential.

“With supportive dynamics and infrastructure, these teams can generate solutions to persistent challenges,” Lee said.

Practical steps that practice leaders can take include setting aside time for brainstorming, providing basic resources for testing new ideas and publicly recognizing creative contributions from team members.

Since the dimensions are measurable, they could be used to benchmark progress, guide professional development and identify barriers to innovation.

Researchers also note that creativity can come from any member of the care team, not just clinicians. Involving nurses, medical assistants, behavioral health staff, pharmacists, administrative personnel and other advanced practice providers (APPs) can lead to more comprehensive, patient-centered care.

Looking ahead

Although the study was conducted in a single health system, the authors say the framework could be applied more broadly with further testing. Further research may explore how boosting team creativity affects patient outcomes, staff satisfaction and practice sustainability.

For now, the message is clear: when it comes to solving primary care’s toughest problems, tapping into the creative capacity of the entire team could be a powerful, underused strategy in health care.