Building a Culture of Innovation in Healthcare

What does it take to build a culture of innovation in healthcare?

In my career so far I’ve seen the challenges of this task at all levels - from my time as the passive, harried junior doctor upon whom innovation was forced, through leading it as Clinical Lead in a social enterprise and then as Innovation Lead at my local commissioning group, and then to my time as a builder and provider - working at Babylon as Director of Digital Health & Innovation.

Through all of this, one thing has been very clear. For innovation to have any chance of taking root, the environment in which it exists needs to be favourable. In short: the culture needs to be right. This doesn’t happen by chance either. It needs care, attention, and broad stakeholder involvement.

So how do you set about building that culture of innovation in healthcare? This was the question I put to a panel of experts at the MedTech World event on Thursday 19th October,2023. It turned out they’ve all been thinking about this alot too.

AAHUTI RAI

Advisor to early stage startups focusing on market access and clinical adoption; she is also a Venture Partner with Conduit Connect, a VC Impact Fund. Her background is grounded in innovation and tech working across 13 different industries, including healthcare.

HARRY LYKOSTRATIS

Orthopaedic Surgeon, Software Engineer, and CEO of Open Medical that has been trading in the UK, Europe, and Middle East providing digital health workflow solutions at national and regional level. With Open Medical, Harry has implemented dozens of large scale digital transformations with multiple stakeholders and across fragmented digital ecosystems.

WIKTORIA MILCZYNSKA

Medical doctor and one of the co-founders of Medtechly , a platform for helping doctors get involved in Medtech. She is passionate about empowering a technology-enabled transformation of healthcare.

MATTHEW BROWN

Group Medical Director at Bupa , supporting with the implementation of innovative solutions across Bupa’s global insurance and provision businesses, including digital health solutions, pathway redesign, and supporting with novel approaches to payor/provider contracting.

The panel started with Matthew, who talked from a leadership perspective about the importance of an innovation mindset. This is not just important for the creation and communication of a compelling vision for innovation, but also the curation of the correct internal environment for innovation to thrive. This requires the right tools to be made available to the workforce, as well as making sure they have the time to get involved in innovation outside their core responsibilities.

He also highlighted the importance of sharing this vision and strategy externally, to allow those outside the company to better understand the direction of travel and better meet their needs.

Aahuti was interested in how we get to the deeper, fundamental issues that need to be addressed. A workforce that is time-poor and stressed is highly unlikely to be well placed to come up with solutions to anything other the most immediate and obvious problems. Thinking becomes much more fixed, less creative or holistic. Even during the recent COVID pandemic, seen by many as a moment of acceleration of innovation, we focussed on the here and now. While understandable, is it any wonder that we see a regression back towards a more conservative mean now that the immediate danger has passed?

“We should be asking the question 'How might we…' when we look at the challenges in front of us” said Aahuti, whose experience ranges from healthcare through to banking and online retail.

For Harry, another veteran of numerous innovative transformations, the key is to truly understand the problem. To do so, we need to ensure that we capture the breadth of the stakeholders, and not just focus on the usual suspects like doctors and managers. The system that we think we are trying to change is frequently different to the one that is actually operating at the front line. In inefficient systems, staff will often adapt and hack their workplace. Without taking this into account, our efforts are much more likely to fail.

"Innovation begins with understanding"

Wiktoria built on this and took the audience to the front-line. Like an iceberg, 90% of the workplace problems are hidden from the leadership. Without broad stakeholder engagement, it remains that way.

So what are the takeaways?

1. A Favourable Environment is Crucial: For any innovative initiative to succeed, the environment or culture in which it is introduced should be conducive. Culture doesn't change by chance but requires intentional efforts.
2. Ensure Broad Stakeholder Involvement: Building an innovation-friendly culture requires the involvement and collaboration of various stakeholders, not just the top-tier management.
3. Cultivate an Innovation Mindset: As highlighted by Matthew, leadership should cultivate an innovation mindset. This goes beyond just having a vision for innovation but also ensuring that the necessary resources, tools, and time are provided to the workforce to engage in innovative activities.
4. Broadcast your Vision: Sharing the vision and strategy externally can help outside stakeholders understand the company's direction, leading to more aligned and efficient collaborations.
5. Address the Fundamental Issues: Aahuti pointed out the need to delve deep into fundamental issues. A stressed and overburdened workforce might not be in the best position to think creatively and innovatively. Leaders should strive to create an environment where employees have the space and resources to think holistically.
6. Understand the Actual Problems: As Harry emphasised, truly understanding the problem at hand is crucial for successful innovation. This includes capturing insights from a wide range of stakeholders, and understanding the ground realities and unofficial hacks that frontline workers might be using.
7. Engage the Front-line: Wiktoria's point underlines the importance of recognising that a significant portion of workplace challenges is hidden from leadership. Engaging with the frontline and getting their insights can reveal these hidden challenges.
8. Culture is the Sum of its Parts: An organisation's culture is the sum total of contributions from every individual working there. For a culture of innovation to thrive, everyone's contribution towards a shared vision is essential.
9. Psychological Safety and Devolution of Power: Psychological safety is crucial for fostering innovation. By giving more decision-making power to the workforce and ensuring their voices are heard, organisations can create an environment where employees feel safe to share and implement innovative ideas.
10. Continuously Nurture to Achieve Growth: A culture of innovation cannot be forcibly imposed; it needs to be nurtured and grown over time. This requires consistent efforts from leadership to engage with, empower, and encourage the entire workforce.

Culture ultimately reflects the sum of the parts, the contribution of everyone in healthcare towards a common vision and set of values. This cannot simply be imposed, but instead has to be grown and nurtured. Leaders should aim for this. By engaging your entire workforce and devolving power, we can increase psychological safety, build confidence, and begin to generate ideas and solutions that are true frontline priorities.