Case 1: We need to innovate
Learning goals
1. What is innovation?
a. What are technologies and innovations?
2. What are different types of innovation?
3. What are the challenges of innovation?
4. What are the current challenges in healthcare?
a. What are the challenges in the innovation of healthcare?
5. What is the difference between innovation processes in healthcare and other sectors?
1. What is innovation?
Many different definitions of innovation exist. Key points in these definitions are:
- New ideas
A new (or improved) product, process or service, or a whole new business or business model.
- Exploitation
The idea must be implantable and potentially value generating.
- Successful
The innovation is adopted by the target audience.
- New
This is a relative term; it can mean “new to the world”, “new to the market”, or “new to the
organisation”
Definition of an innovation according to Barlow (2017):
- Innovation can refer to an outcome and it can refer to the process by which these outcomes
are developed.
- Healthcare innovation is about how you create, implement, embed and sustain innovation in
healthcare systems.
Innovation as a double-edged sword
- On the one hand, innovations improve health performances and quality of care;
- On the other hand, innovations tend to increase healthcare costs.
,Innovations have two dimensions
- A creative dimension
Often described as “the invention”
- A commercial or practical dimension
Involves the exploitation of the invention
Only when both these dimension are effectively managed does one have an innovation. Often,
many ideas fail to make it beyond the invention stage. The pathways to adoption can be long and
hard.
Process of innovation
The process of innovation has commonly been divided into three stages, known as “the
Schumperterian trilogy”:
- Invention phase
Where ideas are turned into workable inventions, is typically characterised by
experimentation to prove the concept. Incremental innovations may involve little or no
experimentation but nevertheless require a considerable amount of technical development.
Much effort has gone into improving the life of mobile phone or laptop batteries as these
devices have grown ever-more power hungry.
- Commercialisations
Where the latent value of a technology is unlocked in order to generate real value. There
may be many possible ways to commercialise an idea, but only a few are likely to succeed.
Today the term ‘commercialisation’ is often used synonymously with the concept of
‘business models’, which are essentially enabling devices to allow inventors to profit from
their ideas.
- Adoption and diffusion
The process by which innovations are taken-up and spread through a population. This rarely
takes place at a steady, linear rate. If the adoption of an innovative product is plotted over
time, it frequently exhibits an S-shaped curve.
Failure may occur even after adoption as the implications of the innovation are more fully
understood. Drugs where previously unforeseen side effects only emerge after widespread use are
an example. These failed innovations are rarely studied.
, Criticism to the Schumperterian trilogy:
- It is seen as too linear – However, linear models are widely used by policy-makers, the
business community and academics as a basic blueprint for technological innovation
activities because of their simplicity.
o Nevertheless, linear models hide the true complexity of the innovation process and
because of this, they are seen by many as normative and deterministic.
Technological innovation therefore needs to be seen as the result of interactions within ecosystems
that bring together companies and other institutions within a particular technology or industrial
sector, rather than as an output of a series of discrete processes. Different industries are
characterised by different forms of innovation process, ranging from highly structured and formalised
new product development processes to ones that are more evolutionary and adaptive.
1a. What are technologies and innovation?
Definition technology
Many different definition of technology exist, of which the broader definitions have been criticized
because they are too broad. In this course we use the following definition of technology:
- Technology is concerned with the application of knowledge to solve problems, including 4
dimensions: knowledge, activity, objects and volition. Furthermore, a distinction is made
between:
o Hard technology (tangible artefacts products made by humans)
o Soft technology (the knowledge about how those artefacts work)
They are always combined; you can’t use one without another.
Hard and soft technologies in healthcare
- Hard technology
The physical/ tangible artefacts.
For example:
o Drugs
o Devices
o Other equipment
o Physical infrastructure
o Robotic heart catheter
Learning goals
1. What is innovation?
a. What are technologies and innovations?
2. What are different types of innovation?
3. What are the challenges of innovation?
4. What are the current challenges in healthcare?
a. What are the challenges in the innovation of healthcare?
5. What is the difference between innovation processes in healthcare and other sectors?
1. What is innovation?
Many different definitions of innovation exist. Key points in these definitions are:
- New ideas
A new (or improved) product, process or service, or a whole new business or business model.
- Exploitation
The idea must be implantable and potentially value generating.
- Successful
The innovation is adopted by the target audience.
- New
This is a relative term; it can mean “new to the world”, “new to the market”, or “new to the
organisation”
Definition of an innovation according to Barlow (2017):
- Innovation can refer to an outcome and it can refer to the process by which these outcomes
are developed.
- Healthcare innovation is about how you create, implement, embed and sustain innovation in
healthcare systems.
Innovation as a double-edged sword
- On the one hand, innovations improve health performances and quality of care;
- On the other hand, innovations tend to increase healthcare costs.
,Innovations have two dimensions
- A creative dimension
Often described as “the invention”
- A commercial or practical dimension
Involves the exploitation of the invention
Only when both these dimension are effectively managed does one have an innovation. Often,
many ideas fail to make it beyond the invention stage. The pathways to adoption can be long and
hard.
Process of innovation
The process of innovation has commonly been divided into three stages, known as “the
Schumperterian trilogy”:
- Invention phase
Where ideas are turned into workable inventions, is typically characterised by
experimentation to prove the concept. Incremental innovations may involve little or no
experimentation but nevertheless require a considerable amount of technical development.
Much effort has gone into improving the life of mobile phone or laptop batteries as these
devices have grown ever-more power hungry.
- Commercialisations
Where the latent value of a technology is unlocked in order to generate real value. There
may be many possible ways to commercialise an idea, but only a few are likely to succeed.
Today the term ‘commercialisation’ is often used synonymously with the concept of
‘business models’, which are essentially enabling devices to allow inventors to profit from
their ideas.
- Adoption and diffusion
The process by which innovations are taken-up and spread through a population. This rarely
takes place at a steady, linear rate. If the adoption of an innovative product is plotted over
time, it frequently exhibits an S-shaped curve.
Failure may occur even after adoption as the implications of the innovation are more fully
understood. Drugs where previously unforeseen side effects only emerge after widespread use are
an example. These failed innovations are rarely studied.
, Criticism to the Schumperterian trilogy:
- It is seen as too linear – However, linear models are widely used by policy-makers, the
business community and academics as a basic blueprint for technological innovation
activities because of their simplicity.
o Nevertheless, linear models hide the true complexity of the innovation process and
because of this, they are seen by many as normative and deterministic.
Technological innovation therefore needs to be seen as the result of interactions within ecosystems
that bring together companies and other institutions within a particular technology or industrial
sector, rather than as an output of a series of discrete processes. Different industries are
characterised by different forms of innovation process, ranging from highly structured and formalised
new product development processes to ones that are more evolutionary and adaptive.
1a. What are technologies and innovation?
Definition technology
Many different definition of technology exist, of which the broader definitions have been criticized
because they are too broad. In this course we use the following definition of technology:
- Technology is concerned with the application of knowledge to solve problems, including 4
dimensions: knowledge, activity, objects and volition. Furthermore, a distinction is made
between:
o Hard technology (tangible artefacts products made by humans)
o Soft technology (the knowledge about how those artefacts work)
They are always combined; you can’t use one without another.
Hard and soft technologies in healthcare
- Hard technology
The physical/ tangible artefacts.
For example:
o Drugs
o Devices
o Other equipment
o Physical infrastructure
o Robotic heart catheter
