Innovation in healthcare: toolbox for executives

Goal innovation in healthcare

Want to find out why leadership and innovation are essential in healthcare organisations? Then give this podcast a listen in advance!

There is an increasing need in the healthcare sector for creativity and innovation to meet key healthcare challenges (Zuber, 2018).

Innovation is crucial for the continuous quality development of a healthcare organisation and is generally seen as a process of integrating new ideas that are implemented and considered improvements. They are changes that help healthcare providers to work:

• smarter;
• faster;
• better;
• more cost-effectively (Eines, 2017).

Nevertheless, change management starts long before innovative developments are implemented and begins with understanding the culture and context of where the innovation is to be applied (Cleary, 2019).  

Leadership and innovation

Effective (formal and informal) leadership acts as a catalyst to develop and promote innovation in healthcare. Leadership is a key factor in encouraging healthcare providers to adopt more innovative behaviour in healthcare organisations (Masood, 20 ; Boamah, ).

On the one hand, it is currently observed that formal leaders are not sufficiently innovative, creative and entrepreneurial; they do not dare to make mistakes. On the other hand, caregivers should be encouraged to think innovatively and solve problems provided support from managers who can inspire them to:

• perform above their expectations;
• can act as their role models;
• can raise their awareness;
• can create a shared vision for them (Eines, 2017).

Need for tools for executives

However, research by Zuber et al (2018) shows that executives lack sufficient tools to support healthcare providers to take the risks required when implementing innovation. To meet this challenge, these executives need:

• guidance;
• clear actions, methods and tools of humancentered design.

By getting started, these executives can support caregivers and transform care organisations (Zuber, 2018).

To date, there are no tools available that care sector executives can use to develop informal leadership and innovation skills in caregivers to create a culture of innovation.

Research toolbox on innovation in healthcare

We therefore enthusiastically set to work on the following research question: what tools, resources and handles can managers of healthcare organisations use to optimise the innovation culture and increase support for innovation?