We are constantly being reminded that innovation is the key tool to drive modernisation in healthcare. It is a buzzword being used from senior government down as a metaphor for change. But what really is innovation and how can it be made to work?
Firstly, to be effective, innovation must to be supported from the top. It may be disruptive and challenging in ways that can move people beyond their comfort zones, so clear buy-in from senior management is vital. Innovation works by harnessing creative processes to alter how we think about things and tackle healthcare issues in fresh, novel ways. The myth that someone from outside cannot understand your challenges should be overruled; it is the role of the consultant to ask searching questions and this can be difficult from within an organisation. Principally the objective is to help you look beyond your sphere at innovative ways to address fundamental issues. In practice innovation works best person to person or in small groups, and begins by listening and exploring to build fresh insight. Innovative opportunities emerge by rebalancing issues in creative ways to meet stated objectives. Used this way innovation becomes a series of low cost thought experiments that throw fresh light on a problem, the typical deliverable being creative scenarios that illustrate new opportunities.
Effective innovation could drive change within existing NHS health delivery structures. It might affect all aspects of the patient pathway with new devices, better treatment techniques and more effective service models. But more radical innovation seeds step changes in the ways we do things, and is then known as disruptive, but has the potential for far greater savings. We see step change coming in the emerging focus on wellness, behaviour change and tackling obesity, areas where technological innovation is currently being driven by industry for its own commercial gain. Health policy makers need to engage innovation as a way to help them interface with industry, driving these technologies to become as effective as possible in preventing people becoming patients in the first place.
Pearson Innovation has been working with industry in the healthcare space for twenty years and has established a reputation for developing innovative devices and services in areas ranging from surgical instruments to drug delivery and new service models. We used the last ten years to build our understanding of the mechanisms of health policy and its delivery, before becoming invited members of the Associated Parliamentary Health Group (APHG). Mike Pearson has also been active with the Department of Health on several projects leading to his presentation at the launch of their i4i program in July 2008.
Insight into the realities of policy makers and empathy for the needs of people and patients is balanced by our understanding of the demands of the scientific community and the commercial pressures of industry, making Pearson Innovation a unique consultancy in healthcare.
