Knowledge-intensive service activities in health care innovation:Case Pirkanmaa

The report sheds light to the role of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA) in developing the innovation capability of health care system. It is based on a case study in the Pirkanmaa Hospital District. The PHD which has generally been considered a pioneer in systemic innovation within specialised health care in Finland. Systemic innovation refers to simultaneous redefining of boundaries of service provider organisations boundaries, development of new kinds of services, and application of new technologies. Of the several systemic innovations with the PHD four have been selected for this study: The Laboratory Centre, the Coxa Hospital, the Mänttä Health District and the Imaging Centre. The study indicated that systemic innovation in the PHD has been mainly developed and implemented by internal KISA. However, external consultancy services have been used to some extent in the early preparatory phases. Additionally, external training and education services have been extensively used at all times. The report discusses incentives and barriers for change as well as the relation of internal and external KISA to organisational learning and knowledge transfer