While many phenomenon increase in a linear fashion, innovation is a discrete, discontinuous and often disrup tive event.Regardless of the field of endeavor, from science to service industries, innovation is an unpredictable occurrence.In hindsight, we often view new scientific discoveries or innovative events as obvious.In fact, I use the term discovery as descriptive of the process by which observations lead to a new understanding whether it is bet ter understanding the human genome, or a new method of treating disease, or simply a better way to provide patient care.