Lecture: Challenges of Innovation in Healthcare 31-8-2021
What are the current challenges in healthcare (1)?
Ageing of the population
Growing incidence of chronic diseases
Strong demand for high quality of care
Rising expectations
Unequal accessibility to healthcare
Pressure on labour force
Rising healthcare costs
Main challenges:
to provide the best possible care
to as many people as possible
as affordable as possible
How do we cope with these challenges? We have to make our health system sustainable for the
future by redesigning healthcare!
Redesigning healthcare:
Adopting new payment and reimbursement models to stimulate improvement of
performance
Moving from sickness and treatment to wellness and prevention
Integrating primary, secondary and social care (new organizational structures)
Finding new ways to involve private and voluntary sectors.
Making individuals more responsible for their own care (relatives/neighbours for care and
less soon to nursing homes)
Shifting from expensive hospital care to community care (specialist coming in to primary
care. Do not have to go to hospital because of special hours)
Finding cheaper and simpler organizational and technological solutions (you will find this
most)
What role of innovation in this process
Improving performance of healthcare systems
improving health outcomes for individuals
increasing efficiency of healthcare
What are the challenges in innovation in healthcare?
o Innovation often needs large financial investments
o Not all the science and technology is implemented into everyday mainstream healthcare practice
(waste)
o There is often a considerable time lag between development and implementation (waste)
o Innovation is not always adopted correctly and not everyone has equal access
o Innovation often increases costs because it allows us to provide more health care
What are the challenges for different sectors involved in innovation in healthcare?
1
, Healthcare is supported by four major industrial sectors:
1. Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (biopharma)
2. Medical devices
3. Information technology (IT)
4. The built environment (design, engineering and construction)
They are confronted with a changing landscape:
An evolving market for their products
A changing balance of power across the health care value chain
Pressure on their business models (price for vaccines, is it morally correct to ask so much?)
What are the challenges for the different sectors involved in innovation in healthcare? (First 3 Ch 1
Barlow)
1.Biopharma:
2. Medical Devices:
3. IT:
4.The built environment:
Changes in the organization of healthcare also heave their impact on the building (integrated
care, patient centred care)
Rules and regulations
Integrating (options for) the newest technologies in buildings (
Differences healthcare sector and other sectors (2):
Healthcare is very complex, always evolving, heavily regulated and highly politicized.
Factors that influence the innovation processes in healthcare:
The nature of healthcare technology and innovation
Risk-averse culture and extensive regulation
Economics and politics of healthcare
Environment for adoption and implementation is often extremely complex
Check Chapter 3 for examples for each category
Technology and Innovation (3):
Technology: Application of knowledge to solve problems
Hard technology: that you can touch (Tangible artefacts -> products made by humans)
Soft technology: the knowledge about how those artefacts work -> manual of products,
sometimes also a way of thinking).
Sometimes it depends on the argumentation whether it is hard or soft
Innovation: Innovation can refer to an outcome and it can refer to the process by which these
outcomes are developed. Also innovation has both a creative dimension (invention) and a
commercial/practical dimension that involves the exploitation of the invention. Is only invention
when is has both of these (this is all according to Barlow 2017).
2
What are the current challenges in healthcare (1)?
Ageing of the population
Growing incidence of chronic diseases
Strong demand for high quality of care
Rising expectations
Unequal accessibility to healthcare
Pressure on labour force
Rising healthcare costs
Main challenges:
to provide the best possible care
to as many people as possible
as affordable as possible
How do we cope with these challenges? We have to make our health system sustainable for the
future by redesigning healthcare!
Redesigning healthcare:
Adopting new payment and reimbursement models to stimulate improvement of
performance
Moving from sickness and treatment to wellness and prevention
Integrating primary, secondary and social care (new organizational structures)
Finding new ways to involve private and voluntary sectors.
Making individuals more responsible for their own care (relatives/neighbours for care and
less soon to nursing homes)
Shifting from expensive hospital care to community care (specialist coming in to primary
care. Do not have to go to hospital because of special hours)
Finding cheaper and simpler organizational and technological solutions (you will find this
most)
What role of innovation in this process
Improving performance of healthcare systems
improving health outcomes for individuals
increasing efficiency of healthcare
What are the challenges in innovation in healthcare?
o Innovation often needs large financial investments
o Not all the science and technology is implemented into everyday mainstream healthcare practice
(waste)
o There is often a considerable time lag between development and implementation (waste)
o Innovation is not always adopted correctly and not everyone has equal access
o Innovation often increases costs because it allows us to provide more health care
What are the challenges for different sectors involved in innovation in healthcare?
1
, Healthcare is supported by four major industrial sectors:
1. Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (biopharma)
2. Medical devices
3. Information technology (IT)
4. The built environment (design, engineering and construction)
They are confronted with a changing landscape:
An evolving market for their products
A changing balance of power across the health care value chain
Pressure on their business models (price for vaccines, is it morally correct to ask so much?)
What are the challenges for the different sectors involved in innovation in healthcare? (First 3 Ch 1
Barlow)
1.Biopharma:
2. Medical Devices:
3. IT:
4.The built environment:
Changes in the organization of healthcare also heave their impact on the building (integrated
care, patient centred care)
Rules and regulations
Integrating (options for) the newest technologies in buildings (
Differences healthcare sector and other sectors (2):
Healthcare is very complex, always evolving, heavily regulated and highly politicized.
Factors that influence the innovation processes in healthcare:
The nature of healthcare technology and innovation
Risk-averse culture and extensive regulation
Economics and politics of healthcare
Environment for adoption and implementation is often extremely complex
Check Chapter 3 for examples for each category
Technology and Innovation (3):
Technology: Application of knowledge to solve problems
Hard technology: that you can touch (Tangible artefacts -> products made by humans)
Soft technology: the knowledge about how those artefacts work -> manual of products,
sometimes also a way of thinking).
Sometimes it depends on the argumentation whether it is hard or soft
Innovation: Innovation can refer to an outcome and it can refer to the process by which these
outcomes are developed. Also innovation has both a creative dimension (invention) and a
commercial/practical dimension that involves the exploitation of the invention. Is only invention
when is has both of these (this is all according to Barlow 2017).
2
