Technology and Innovation in Healthcare

Technology and Innovation in Healthcare

Not only do new technologies benefit healthcare practitioners, but they also contribute to the general well-being of the public. For example, apps on our healthcare organization phones now track our physical activity and calorie intake to help us avoid obesity and heart disease. There are heart rate monitor watches on the market that a doctor can use to identify unusual patterns and potentially prevent a heart attack. As medical advancements continue, the number of applications available to professionals and patients will grow. Technological advancements enable faster communication, data storage and transmission, ease and simplified production, and other benefits for any industry while preventing sectors from regressing (King et al., 2015). The healthcare industry is capitalizing on these opportunities because it stands to benefit the most from these rapid advancements.

Using technology and innovation to remain competitive and provide reasonable healthcare services

Attracting new patients and retaining quality employees are two of the most difficult challenges for healthcare providers. While increased clinical capabilities are the most obvious way to differentiate yourself from the competition, such innovations may be prohibitively expensive. Continue reading to learn about seven strategies that hospital systems can use to improve clinical capabilities, adapt to changing healthcare challenges, and attract physicians and patients. Offering the most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic technologies is the most straightforward way for service providers to improve their clinical capabilities. Innovative imaging techniques, for example, can significantly improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis, as well as the efficacy of treatment. They can also reduce hospital stays, lowering overall treatment costs (King et al., 2015). Medical personnel can also benefit from revolutionary clinical procedures and processes, such as reduced workload or improved information and expertise flow throughout the treatment chain. Finally, no service provider wants to be the last in their industry to provide diagnostic and treatment capabilities that competitors take for granted (Moore et al., 2015). To overcome this challenge, you’ll need an outcomes-based investment strategy for acquiring the new equipment required to stay competitive, as well as a fleet management strategy to ensure that each new investment continues to provide clinical value over its useful life.

Businesses that prioritize innovation in their products, services, business models, and consumer targeting grow faster, generate more revenue and achieve greater success. Similarly, it could be said that healthcare providers have made innovation a critical component of their success. As a result, network membership benefits hospitals as well as businesses and academic institutions (Giget, 2017). Patients must have access to cutting-edge medical techniques in order to receive unique treatment options. Developing effective innovation frameworks and fostering a strong innovation culture is a unique challenge for businesses of all sizes. Healthcare organizations that have a strong innovation culture that spans all business sectors and encourages creativity and information exchange outperform their peers. Furthermore, communication and a consistent, comprehensive implementation strategy have a significant impact on the success of an innovation.

Using technology and innovation to maintain a competitive advantage

You can incorporate innovation as a critical component of business growth and competitiveness into your strategic planning process. It can help you increase production, lower costs, and increase profits. Because small and medium-sized businesses lack the economies of scale enjoyed by large corporations, the ability to innovate becomes even more critical (Giget, 2017). Because it is impossible to predict which ideas will be most profitable in advance, the nature of innovation is frequently defined as unpredictable. Furthermore, these profits may take time to materialize, which is why businesses with limited resources prefer to invest in ventures that are less risky and produce faster results. It is neither possible nor desirable to outsource innovation. Rather, it should begin within your organization. Small and medium-sized businesses typically innovate by making minor operational changes (Giget, 2017). It makes no sense to use an outsourced company for the job because project transfer takes time and requires ongoing maintenance. Furthermore, while acquiring new technology is expensive for small businesses, incorporating it into daily operations is the best and most cost-effective option.

Businesses that can incorporate innovation into their daily operations have a much better chance of long-term success. While incorporating innovation into your business can be difficult, keeping the following factors in mind can help you integrate them into your strategy and methods of operation: The first step in incorporating innovation into your strategy and procedures is to define and break down your long-term goals. Once you’ve established your long-term goals, it will be much easier to connect your short-term innovation goals to your long-term goals. It is critical to ensure that things work properly in practice by seamlessly integrating them into your existing work routines (Grubb et al., 2018). The most efficient way to accomplish this is to create an idea management plan. A well-thought-out idea management approach should cover all stages, from concept inception to development and execution. It should be an add-on to your current business operations, focusing solely on the essentials. While having goals, procedures, and tools is useful, it will not result in innovation. It’s just as important to have the right tools and processes in place as it is to be able to foster innovation by cultivating a growth mindset and shaping your culture.

Your company’s culture refers to the collective way in which it operates. It is a set of implicit and explicit rules and conventions that govern people’s actions and reactions in a variety of situations. In other words, it includes everything your company stands for, as well as how and why people behave the way they do (Grubb et al., 2018). When it comes to gaining a competitive advantage, culture is critical. A pro-innovation culture is defined by a collaborative and ongoing desire to improve what you do. The culture of a healthy company allows it to adapt to change. If customer experience is your competitive advantage, ensure that everyone on your team shares your customer-centric mindset and practices.

What steps would you take to implement innovative strategies in your company?

Innovation is one of many strategies available to help you achieve your strategic goals. The process of selecting from a set of viable alternatives in order to increase your chances of “winning.” Long-term success and the ability to quickly organize your business in order to gain a competitive advantage are difficult to achieve. While developing an innovation strategy is not difficult in and of itself, connecting it to your overall business objectives and operational methods will take up the majority of your time and attention (Kostoff et al., 2019). While strategy is a plan for integrating marketing, operations, finance, and R&D to achieve a competitive goal, innovation is about creating new value that people are willing to pay for.

To be clear, innovation strategy is more about mapping an organization’s mission, vision, and value proposition for specific consumer markets than it is about hosting an idea contest. It defines the parameters for your innovation performance objectives by streamlining and organizing your innovation effort to maximize the potential outcome. It is critical to remember that innovation goals should not be separated from overall business objectives, as having a clear vision and common goals for innovation can assist you in avoiding the silo effect and increasing operational efficiency (Kostoff et al., 2019). The first step in incorporating innovation into your strategy development process is to consider the most likely methods of success and defend your selection.

Often, the best course of action is to make a set of decisions that you are more capable of carrying out than other participants in your field. The process of developing new, distinct concepts that support an organization’s financial viability, including its mission, as well as the tools for bringing such ideas to fruition, is known as business model innovation. The primary goal of business model innovation is to generate new revenue streams by increasing the value of products and changing how they are delivered to customers (Kostoff et al., 2019). Continuous improvement and incremental/sustainable advancements are referred to as leveraging current business models. Firms that rely on existing business models rather than developing new ones prioritize strengthening their core business over creating new value through the development of new business models.

Developing an Innovation Strategy

Utterback and Abernathy established dominant design as a paradigm for technology management in 1975, highlighting key technical characteristics that have since become de facto standards. [1] A dominant design has gained market loyalty and is one that competitors and innovators must emulate if they hope to capture a significant share of the market. When it comes to introducing new products and services to the market, we are in the Fluid phase, which is marked by radical product innovation and an explosion of diverse product and service ideas from a wide range of competitors (Kostoff et al., 2019).

During the Fluid phase, designs will congregate around a Dominant design that will be adopted by all or the majority of market participants. The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to be the most revolutionary technological advancement in the history of healthcare. Many disruptive innovations are only possible because devices, apps, the internet, and the cloud are all linked. Electronic medical records have progressed. Through the use of big data and device connectivity, the Internet of Things enables the provision of up-to-date patient information at the point of care (Kostoff et al., 2019). The way we manage patient data in today’s digitized world is changing dramatically on all fronts. A healthcare provider can easily access a patient’s entire medical history thanks to an EHR. Consider the ability to accurately diagnose a patient based on previous visits and immediately recommend the necessary medication or procedure.

EHRs make it easier for providers to communicate with one another by allowing them to be shared across devices and secure networks. Healthcare providers appreciate how simple it is to update and expand on a patient’s medical history with EHRs. EHRs can also help with preventative care and avoid medical errors by providing a comprehensive and understandable view of a patient’s history. A practitioner can review a patient’s medical history for patterns that may indicate an undiagnosed medical problem and initiate preventative measures as soon as possible. As technology advances, the utility of EHRs as a replacement for the archaic and time-consuming physical recording method will only grow (Kostoff et al., 2019).

Implementing Healthcare Innovation Strategies

Our providers will be strongly encouraged to participate in quality improvement activities at the hospital. Innovative concepts should be acknowledged and celebrated. If possible, we should also create innovation hubs to facilitate the exchange of ideas among various stakeholders. Because the transition to value-based care necessitates a fundamental rethinking of long-established processes, healthcare organizations should do everything in their power to encourage innovative thinking among clinical and operational staff. Establishing a framework for integrating innovation throughout the organization is critical (Gallagher et al., 2016).

Hospitals must balance the therapeutic benefits of specific innovation projects with the associated technical requirements and financial viability. The most beneficial changes in healthcare delivery have resulted from a recognition that collaboration works, whether it is the expansion of team-based and integrated care or the spread of patient-centered population health management. Healthcare providers provide their clients (beneficiaries) with numerous communication channels to enable the receipt of requests such as authorization for examinations, procedures, and hospitalizations in order to increase access to their services. According to innovation studies, managing customer engagement channels for healthcare enterprises is a knowledge-intensive business service (Gallagher et al., 2016).

Useful quantitative and qualitative analysis tools

Methods for collecting quantitative data

Surveys are a series of closed-ended or multiple-choice questions sent to a random sample of people (online, in person, or over the phone).

Experiments: Changing and controlling variables to determine cause-and-effect relationships

Observations: observing subjects in a non-labeled natural setting

Methods for collecting qualitative data

Interviews: Asking open-ended questions to respondents verbally.

Focus groups: A group discussion about a specific topic to elicit feedback for future research.

Ethnography is the study of culture and behavior in a community or organization over a long period of time.

A review of the literature is an examination of previously published works by other authors.

Strategies for evaluating company performance based on Porter’s five-force model

The hegemony of the supplier. It is determined how easily providers can raise prices. The number of suppliers for each critical input, the uniqueness of the supplier’s product or service, the supplier’s relative size and strength, and the cost of switching suppliers all influence this. The purchaser’s leverage is A measure of how easy it is for buyers to negotiate price reductions. The size of the market, the value of each buyer to the organization, and the switching cost for suppliers all have an impact. When a company has a small number of key customers, it frequently imposes terms. Rivalry – the key drivers are the size of the market and the ability of competitors (Gallagher et al., 2016). A large number of competitors selling identical products and services will dilute the market’s attractiveness. Threats of substitution – When a market offers near-substitute products, customers are more likely to seek alternative sources of information in response to price increases. This reduces both the supplier’s influence and the market’s appeal. A new entrance could be constructed. Profitable markets attract more new entrants, reducing profitability.

Profitability will fall to a competitive level unless incumbents can maintain long-term barriers to entry, such as inventions, scale economies, capitalization, or government restrictions. The United States healthcare system is gradually shifting toward more outpatient care. Between 2003 and 2012, Medicare spending on outpatient hospital treatments increased by 136.5 percent in the United States, far outpacing inpatient services. 13 Instead of going to the emergency room, retail and walk-in clinics offer convenient and cost-effective primary care (Gallagher et al., 2016). CVS already has over 1,000 retail clinics in 35 states and plans to increase that number to 1,500 by 2017. According to demographic targets, half of all Americans must live within 10 miles of a CVS MinuteClinic. Outpatient network development and expansion are particularly appealing to healthcare professionals.

References

King, J. L., Gurbaxani, V., Kraemer, K. L., McFarlan, F. W., Raman, K. S., & Yap, C. S. (2015). Institutional factors in information technology innovation. Information systems research, 5(2), 139-169.

Moore, G. C., & Benbasat, I. (2015). Development of an instrument to measure the perceptions of adopting an information technology innovation. Information systems research, 2(3), 192-222.

Montero, J. P. (2017). Permits, standards, and technology innovation. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 44(1), 23-44.

Gidget, M. (2017). Technology, innovation, and strategy: recent developments. International Journal of Technology Management, 14(6-8), 613-634.

Kostoff, R. N. (2019). Science and technology innovation. Technovation, 19(10), 593-604.

Grubb, M. (2018). Technology innovation and climate change policy: an overview of issues and options. Keio economic studies, 41(2), 103-132.

National Research Council. (2016). Beyond productivity: Information technology, innovation, and creativity. National Academies Press.

Gallagher, K. S., Holdren, J. P., & Sagar, A. D. (2016). Energy-technology innovation. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour., 31, 193-237.

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Activity Time:

3 hours, Additional Time for Study, Research, and Reflection: 1 hour

Directions:

Main post: 

For this discussion, reflect on the course competencies and identify new knowledge gained and how that will impact your nursing practice.

Course Competencies:

1. Explain technologies that lead to enhanced decision-making strategies utilizing the technology life cycle.
2. Analyze how evidence-based practice influences healthcare technology.
3. Differentiate the impact of various communication technologies on safety and quality improvement.
4. Analyze ethical and nursing informatics practice standards within the context of healthcare delivery.
5. Evaluate the role and scope of practice for nursing informatics.
6. Explain innovative systems and distribution of technology to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety.
7. In addition, you have learned about digital fluency. This transferable skill will help you in your future workplace and/or educational endeavors. Discuss at least one way that you have met this transferable skill in this course.

Peer responses: 

Provide two substantial, well-researched, and well-supported feedback on aspects of your peers’ posts that they may not have considered.

Please make your initial post by midweek, and respond to at least two other students’ posts by Saturday (the last day of class). All posts require references AND in-text citations in full APA format. The information must be paraphrased and not quoted. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates. NOTE: Finalized postings must be submitted by deadlines. Any edits after the deadline will be counted as late submissions and deducted accordingly. If you need to make any corrections for clarity’s sake only, you can write an addendum as a reply to yourself. The initial post will still be the one receiving a full grade.

Make sure all posts are thorough, well-researched, and meet minimum requirements and word counts (see rubric).