Innovation and renewal capabilities within and between health care providers

Important results from the project

The aim has been to strengthen the renewal and innovation capacity in the public sector through research supported learning networks - primarily focusing on patients with complex disease problems. Evaluations shows that learning networks with its span of innovative actors and the research supported design clearly can be a fruitful way to pursue improvement in complex system. By letting actors in the system meet and discuss together around new knowledge provided by researchers actors can help each other integrate innovations in their own context.

Expected long term effects

´The goal is to, within and between the participating organizations, develop methods for user involvement and skills/processes for the improvement and implementation of organizational innovation / business models for care.´ Evaluation indicates that different ways of innovation capabilities have been strengthened by the researchers contribution, but also by the amount of time spent together and the trust that has been built up within the network. Using the patient as an attractor for improvement in systems with many actors with various perspectives appears to be fruitful.

Approach and implementation

The project has been implemented under the relatively detailed framework set up in the call. Additional innovative players have been added. It appears that the project has been short of establishing deeper relationships with the effect that all actors in the network have liked to see some sort of extension of the network. We take this wish for future network activities as proof that the perceived benefits have been greater than the effort. We experience some limitations to follow the detailed call text but it has also simplified because the frames have been rather clear.