Leading for innovation

Innovation is any process that creates values for patients, staff, organisations, communities or government. In the context of rising healthcare demand and limited resources, innovation is necessary to facilitate the ongoing delivery of high-quality care. Healthcare is a complex industry with many characteristics that impact the innovation process. Historically, the focus of innovation has been new technological products rather than reimagining how routine care is delivered. However, rethinking how common, less complex conditions are managed, is likely to represent a greater opportunity to capture value going forwards. Strategy is necessary due to limited resources. Key elements include involves setting priorities, measuring improvement, cultivating an innovative culture and managing trade-offs. Innovation can solve a well-recognised problem or propose solution to a problem that is not as well recognized: this is classified as demand-pull or supply-push. Technological solutions can exist in as hard (equipment) or soft (processes, procedures, improvement strategies). Innovation can be classified by the degree to which it changes current technology and/or business models. The resultant classification includes: radical, disruptive, routine, or architectural innovation. Due to the complexity of healthcare, innovations do not always have predictable effects, and require testing. Successful innovations can be spread through diffusion and dissemination