From Buzz to Bizz: the EHealth Innovation Matrix
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Abstract
Background
eHealth solutions are a promising area for improving efficiency and quality of healthcare. Telecare can support self-management of persons with chronic diseases or improve integrated healthcare provisioning by networks of care professionals. However, many potentially valuable innovations do not get beyond the project or pilot phase, i.e. they do not reach structural implementation in care processes. While this problem is known and analyses of the critical issues and success factors in developing and implementing telecare solutions exist, there is little knowledge about practical guidelines to support their viable design and implementation.
Several factors influence the future successful embedding of telecare innovations in practice, i.e. organizational and financial issues, technological issues, adoption, innovation competences and legal and regulatory issues. While the latter provide pre conditions for innovation options, the other issues can be influenced during the innovation process. There is, however, no common systematic approach for guiding telecare innovations through the innovation process from idea to implementation.
Objective
The aim of this research is therefore to develop an innovation support tool that aids eHealth innovation projects and practitioners in realizing viable and sustainable ehealth innovations. The tool will provides check lists, generic organizational and financial models, answers to ‘how to?’ questions and innovation guidelines.
Method
The approach is iterative. First a provisional version of the support tool will be developed based on existing innovation, business and implementation models and practices. Further in depth case studies of eHealth innovations will be used to enrich the tool with practical experiences. In parallel the tool will be applied and validated in actual eHealth innovation projects.
In the current first phase of the research the focus is on developing a framework for the innovation support tool. The main research questions addressed are:
-What are the relevant dimensions in a framework for eHealth innovation support?
-What format would be most useful for an eHealth innovation support tool?
Result and conclusion
We consider eHealth innovation as a phased process and each phase has its own characteristics and challenges. As the first main dimension for the support tool we use a practice based innovation model that distinguishes five innovation phases i.e. Inventory phase, Design and Development phase, Experimental phase, Pilot phase and Rollout phase. Next we consider an eHealth innovation as a service innovation rather than a technological development. For successful implementation an eHealth service requires a sound business model, i.e. a description of how companies, institutions and stakeholders cooperate in creating sustainable value with the service. We use the STOF business model framework as the second dimension in the innovation support tool. The STOF model views a business model from four interrelated domains, i.e. the service domain, technology domain, organizational domain and financial domain, and may capture the relevant issues and factors. If the five innovation phases are crossed with the four STOF model domains the result is the eHealth Innovation Matrix (eHix) with twenty cells. The eHix will provide support for each cell as well support for an innovation workflow.
eHealth solutions are a promising area for improving efficiency and quality of healthcare. Telecare can support self-management of persons with chronic diseases or improve integrated healthcare provisioning by networks of care professionals. However, many potentially valuable innovations do not get beyond the project or pilot phase, i.e. they do not reach structural implementation in care processes. While this problem is known and analyses of the critical issues and success factors in developing and implementing telecare solutions exist, there is little knowledge about practical guidelines to support their viable design and implementation.
Several factors influence the future successful embedding of telecare innovations in practice, i.e. organizational and financial issues, technological issues, adoption, innovation competences and legal and regulatory issues. While the latter provide pre conditions for innovation options, the other issues can be influenced during the innovation process. There is, however, no common systematic approach for guiding telecare innovations through the innovation process from idea to implementation.
Objective
The aim of this research is therefore to develop an innovation support tool that aids eHealth innovation projects and practitioners in realizing viable and sustainable ehealth innovations. The tool will provides check lists, generic organizational and financial models, answers to ‘how to?’ questions and innovation guidelines.
Method
The approach is iterative. First a provisional version of the support tool will be developed based on existing innovation, business and implementation models and practices. Further in depth case studies of eHealth innovations will be used to enrich the tool with practical experiences. In parallel the tool will be applied and validated in actual eHealth innovation projects.
In the current first phase of the research the focus is on developing a framework for the innovation support tool. The main research questions addressed are:
-What are the relevant dimensions in a framework for eHealth innovation support?
-What format would be most useful for an eHealth innovation support tool?
Result and conclusion
We consider eHealth innovation as a phased process and each phase has its own characteristics and challenges. As the first main dimension for the support tool we use a practice based innovation model that distinguishes five innovation phases i.e. Inventory phase, Design and Development phase, Experimental phase, Pilot phase and Rollout phase. Next we consider an eHealth innovation as a service innovation rather than a technological development. For successful implementation an eHealth service requires a sound business model, i.e. a description of how companies, institutions and stakeholders cooperate in creating sustainable value with the service. We use the STOF business model framework as the second dimension in the innovation support tool. The STOF model views a business model from four interrelated domains, i.e. the service domain, technology domain, organizational domain and financial domain, and may capture the relevant issues and factors. If the five innovation phases are crossed with the four STOF model domains the result is the eHealth Innovation Matrix (eHix) with twenty cells. The eHix will provide support for each cell as well support for an innovation workflow.
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