Adopting and diffusing ideas
As cited in the Innovation Review (Innovation Health and Wealth, Accelerating Adoption and Diffusion in the NHS), the adoption and diffusion (or spread) of new practices, requires a supply of new ideas, products and services that can demonstrate added value. Added value might be reflected in improved clinical outcomes, safety of care, reduction of inequalities, cost reduction, improved timeliness and productivity. Creating demand for such innovations requires that potential adopters are made aware of the innovation's added value (or 'value proposition') and how it may be implemented around existing service provision or what service changes are required to deliver it. This may be summed up by two questions a potential adopter may be thinking about:
- What's in it for me (or my service)?
- How can I put it into action?
The following organisations and initiatives are designed to support the promotion, adoption and spread of new ideas.
The NHS Technology Adoption Centre
East Midlands Health Innovation and Education Cluster (HIEC)
Innovative Technology Adoption Procurement Programme (iTAPP)
Healthcare Innovation Expo Events
The NHS Technology Adoption Centre
Essentially the NHS Technology Adoption Centre (NTAC) enables organisations to better understand and overcome their adoption barriers. Very often organisations try and fail to implement healthcare technologies and are unaware of the reasons for their difficulties. It also assists technology and diagnostics suppliers with navigation around the complexities of the NHS. Understanding and being able to negotiate your way through the technology adoption processes is vital to the success of any project. NTAC supports the sustainable implementation of innovative technologies and is focussed on providing organisations with:
- the tools to implement healthcare technologies
- the capability to ensure their continued and sustained use for long-term patient benefit.
NTAC delivers many services to enable implementation and produces a number of guides to enable services to adopt life-changing technologies.
The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation is an independent charity working to continuously improve the quality of healthcare in the UK. It works at every level of the healthcare system, and aims to develop the technical skills, leadership, capacity, knowledge, and the will for change, that are essential for real and lasting improvement.
It has a number of funding schemes, with periodic calls for applications.
NHS Network - Supporting innovation in healthcare technology: the open network
Supporting innovation in healthcare technology is an open NHS network, mainly for NHS Trust Innovation and R&D Managers.
It is concerned with technological innovations, including diagnostic, therapeutic and informatics technologies, and the impact they have upon care pathways, service improvement more generally and other structures and processes associated with the delivery of patient care.
Support may be required in order to help NHS staff drive innovation by identifying clinical or organisational problems and then seeking suitable solutions. Alternatively, staff may need help to develop new technologies and ways of working and then disseminate their solutions.
NHS Live
NHS LIve provides an online database of front line improvement projects, with contact details of staff responsible for them. Also provides you the opportunity to submit your own project for showcasing.
The Improvement Network
The East Midlands Improvement Network is for anyone with an interest in improving healthcare services. It links to a number of service improvement tools and Innovation NHS East Midlands.
Their vision is to create a stronger health system that is:
- evidence-based
- patient-centred
- safe and high quality
- championed by clinicians.
It is promoting ‘joined up service’ provision between health and social care, supporting PCTs to work in partnership with local authorities to secure better joint-working solutions and seamless care for those who access these services.
East Midlands Health Innovation and Education Cluster (HIEC)
The key aim of the East Midlands Health Innovation and Education Cluster is to develop frontline NHS/Social Care improvement solutions through better training and education of the workforce in line with the Darzi Next Stage Review and regional QIPP agenda. Go to their website to see local projects being conducted (Note that calls for new projects have now ceased).
Innovative Technology Adoption Procurement Programme (iTAPP)
The Innovative Technology Adoption Procurement Programme (iTAPP) aims to raise NHS productivity by increasing the utilisation of innovative medical technology, increasing investment in UK businesses (including SMEs), and increasing exports for UK based manufacturers .
Go to the iTAPP link above to find out what technologies are being adopted.
Healthcare Innovation Expo events
The DoH hosted the 2011 Expo event, designed to showcase new ideas and innovative thinking and act as a platform to accelerate the adoption and diffusion of innovation across the NHS. Further events may follow.