processes can be made, the objective decisions on where to allocate resources for
better performance are possible.^5
While the Six Sigma concept has been used for a long time in various
manufacturing and service companies, it is relatively new to the industry of health
care. Threatening and widely registered medical errors that occur in the health care
provide obvious opportunities for the application of the Six Sigma methodology in
order to reduce the level of errors in the clinical processes. Evidence of success in
other industries unequivocally suggests that the application of the Six Sigma
concept will be beneficial both for the patient and health care provider.
The Six Sigma concept from the perspective of technology transfer process, but
with implications in personalized medicine concept, is that it is a user-friendly and
flexible system for achieving, maintaining, and maximizing success in the overall
health care. The Six Sigma system is uniquely driven by close understanding of the
patients’needs, strict use of the facts and statistical analysis, and diligent attention
to managing, improving, and redefining the process of providing the health care.
The medical service is unique in its nature. Error in the delivery of services can
cost the user his life, while the higher technical level of medical service causes
impossibility for the user to correctly estimate the error. Any error in treatment has
a domino effect if it occurs at a critical stage of the management and can lead to
serious consequences. This problem is related to the fact that there is a huge
variation in skills and knowledge of the suppliers, resources, and purchase capa-
bilities of consumers and different regulations, which aim to control this service.^6
In the past, the production and services in medical health care were delivered on
a case-by-case basis and by different stakeholders—experts who have perfected
their skills within the scope of the available knowledge and observations. Today, it
becomes necessary to deliver products based on mass production to more people at
the same time, and that product needs to be personalized. Thus, this process
implicates the creation of the personalized medicine concept while reducing the
number of experts involved in the health care. Once introduced, Six Sigma takes
hold over the entire patient care; initial efforts will likely focus on the existing
processes that appear to be dysfunctional and often prone to error.
The Six Sigma implementation, in order to create the personalized medicine
concept, is going over and beyond the other initiatives by removing the speculations
and reluctant implementation. At each step of the process, the review is mandatory;
methodology forces the participants to rigorously examine the assumptions and to
document these exams. This methodology encourages the reduction of variation not
only in the process immediately after the examination but also in the whole
approach by examining and improving the processes throughout the organization.^7
The medical health care on a world scale is still far from accepting the Six Sigma
concept (the quality level at which the defects are limited to the 3.4 per 1 million
(^5) Jones et al. ( 2010 ).
(^6) Abramowich ( 2005 ).
(^7) Gijo and Rao ( 2005 ).
104 P. Karanikic