The organisational, policy and systems aspects of healthcare innovation
The healthcare sector needs to embrace innovation, both to improve outcomes for patients and to contribute to a knowledge economy. But the generation, evaluation, adoption, spread and scale-up of innovations in healthcare organisations is a complex and challenging business. This is partly because few healthcare organisations are optimally designed to support innovation (for example, they can be overly hierarchical and lacking resources, infrastructure or leadership) and also because incentives in the system are misaligned. Technology projects, for example, often cut across multiple organisations, sectors and stakeholders, adding to the complexity and risks involved in implementation.
Policymaking is conventionally studied as a rational, predictable and evidence-based science (in terms of making and implementing plans), but a more critical take on policy making depicts it as a complex art in which narrative, rhetoric, and clashes between interest groups feature prominently. Policymaking operates on a timescale (days, weeks or months) that meshes poorly with the timescale of research and innovation (years and even decades). Policymakers work with finite budgets, but expectations and demand for health care innovations are increasing apace.
This module will introduce key principles, theories and methods for studying health organisations, policymaking and systems. It will include real-world examples and speakers with practical experience of organisational and policy change.
The last date for receipt of complete applications is 5pm Thursday 26th February 2026. Regrettably, late applications cannot be accepted.
Course Aims
On completion of this module we expect our students to be able to:
-
Give a critical account of the multiple interacting influences at organisational and policy level that may affect the fortunes of a health care innovation
-
Using a specific worked example, identify how these different influences play out (or are likely to play out), and propose measures to maximise the success of the project
-
Analyse the innovative potential of a health care organisation or policy context, and suggest measures to make this context more supportive of entrepreneurs
Research methods and techniques taught in this module:
-
Organisational ethnography and case study
-
Interpretive policy analysis
Examples of case studies to be discussed in this module:
-
National e-health programmes – do policymakers learn from their own history or from examples elsewhere?
-
Accelerated access initiative for new technologies