What is a technological innovation?
What is technology
Definition
Lecture:
- Products made by humans that make our lives easier and more comfortable or ideas and
processes that make it possible to produce such products
- Ideas, knowledge and skills necessary so both are related and part of technology
Barlow:
- Technology is concerned with the application of knowledge to solve problems
Features of technology
Lecture:
- Hard tech - tangible products
- Soft tech- intangible, knowledge on how hard tech works
--> not 2 ends of spectrum, linked and some middle ground exist
- Social construct- people, private organizations and public institutions, interact ad jointly
construct technology to meet their goals and needs
- Technology determinism- eg once it has started it may not be easy to reverse it
Barlow:
- 4 dimensions:
Knowledge
Activity
Objects
Volition power to make your own decisions
- Broad: any tool or technique, any prodzct or proecess, any physical equipment or method of
doing or myking by whiyh human capabiulity is extended
- Soft vs hard tech
- Social construction--> human agency influences our actions and understanding if tech
- Technological determinism: once it started it cannot be easily reversed--> how it is currently
configures has values and knowledge embedded within it
WHO:
- Technological determinism: reductionist theory, assumes that a society's technology
determines the development of its social structure and cultural value
Effects of tech
+
+ useful in achieving our goals -offers “lazy aids” which contribute
+ takes over routine obesity
monotonous tasks - too much use of technology has
+ makes our life comfortable resulted in waste
+ makes complex tasks, easier - environmental pollution due to
+ creates value for users and technology
society - Creates stress if not used properly
Stress
Health technology
,Definition
Lecture:
- WHO def: health technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form
of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedure and systems developed to solve a health problem
and improve the QoL
- Health technology:
o concerns both hard and soft tech
o Shaped by social construction
o Adapted to specific conditions
o Evolves over time
o Is a social construct
Role of health tech
Lecture:
- Priority areas :
Emerging and recurring public and pop health threats
Social economic and physical conditions and environments which significantly impact the
health and wellbeing
Complexity of population health issues which increasingly emphasis the importance of
working together
Health technological innovation
What is (health) innovation
Lecture:
- New better more effective ways of solving problems
- A new idea device or method
- Act or process of introducing new ideas, devices or methods
- In health care the term describes policies, systems technologies ideas services and products
that provide solutions to existing healthcare problems
Barlow:
- Innovation is outcome and process --> turning idea or invention into sth that can be sold to
customers or somehow made practical use of
- Creative and commercial/practical dimension
- Categorized by where the demand has been made (pushed by developers or pulled by
demand) and whether it is incremental or radical
Kimble & Maasoud:
- Innovation: new, better, more effective ways of solving problems --> comes from business,
tech and marketing industries --> can be policies, systems, technologies, ideas, services and
products that provide solutions
- Dictionary: a new idea, device or method and the act or process of introducing new ideas,
devices or methods
- Innovations in healthcare fall under social innovations
o social innovation: new approaches to tackle issues of poverty, education, health and
other human development problems by making system-level changes
- WHO: health innovation improves the efficiency , effectiveness, quality, sustainability, safety
and or affordability of healthcare --> includes new or improved health policies, practices,
systems, products and technologies, services and delivery methods that result in improved
healthcare
,Innovation characteristics
Lecture:
- New idea: new product, process, service, business
- exploitable: implementable and valuable idea
- Successful: adopted by the targeted audience
Barlow:
- Barlow classifies in 3 ways: the scope( how new), form or application, innovativeness (how
much changed)
Kimble & Maasoud:
- 3 components: novelty, application component and intended benefit centered around the
receiver
- Difference innovation from solution: must introduce sth that is new or significantly different
from other solutions in the field
Types of innovations
Lecture:
- Social : new approaches to tackles social issues and solve problem
- Health: new mechanisms to improve pop health
- Product: new goods and services within market
- Process: enhancement of production of goods and services
Health innovation characteristics
Kimble&Maasoud:
innovation must be sth truly new or at least significantly different, applicable to healthcare
and provide a benefit to the field, with patients at the centre and external demands of
stakeholders, funders, regulators, competitors, consumers and general acountability must
be met
--> complex, constantly changing and exclusive of a large interwoven network of factors
and considerations
3 key areas it adresses: how the patient is seen, how the patient is heard, how the patient's
needs are met
Healthcare innovation can be understood based on 3 categories: consumer focus,
technology and business models
Barlow:
Meanings associated with healthcare tech are socially constructed and evolve over time -->
especially soft technologies bc are liable to take properties from the institution in which they
are deployed
Innovation also takes place in healthcare organisations as they develop and adopt new ways
of working, new operational processes, new protocols or standards, new payments and
reimbursement models or new organisational structures = soft tech
New technologies must fit within an existing legacy
How it is introduces depends on: cultural features, physical features, institutional features
Typically health innovations classified according to : scope, form, innovativeness, seen as
both: outcome and process, rarely takes the form of a neat physical artefact
Changes in one areas can time trigger wider changes
Often unclear what innovation actually is, how it originated, who was responsible
May require changes, evolves over time, input of many stakeholders
, Types of health technological innovations
Pharmaceutical innovations
Innovative medical devices
Innovative big data applications
Innovative d-/e-/m-health apps
Perspectives
Benefits and barriers for innovation in healthcare
Barlow:
Evidence for its efficacy may be hard to collect and interpret and therefore contested by
different stakeholders or no widely accepted criteria for judging benefits
Healthcare influences innovation processes by the nature, the risk-averse culture
®ulations, economics and politics of healthcare, environment into which technologies
and innovations are adopted and implemented
Context in which technologies are created and deployed is very important --> can range
from individuals to healthcare organisations to whole systems
Kimble &Maasoud:
factors that affect uptake and diffussion in healthcare: stakeholders and their interests,
funding and cost, policy and government regulations, competition and other developments
Odone:
Personalization of healthcare --> empowerement
Digitalization can support and improve healthcare delivery
Future with health technological innovations
A more digitalised society , more involved innovation in public health,
More technological, digital society means that all data can be easily accessed , regulation can
be changed
Public health is strengthening its position through this in the different member states.
