Why do some innovations fail and others succeed? Obstacles and drivers for patient-centred innovation.

Abstract

Healthcare innovation occurs in the context of high stakes; a changing societal and institutional landscape leads to challenges that force care providers to reinvent themselves. These challenges are new, as is the organizational setting that has to adopt change in order to stay afloat. Also new is the approach of patient-centred innovation as practiced by Radboudumc, a hospital at which the patient is made a partner in his own treatment. This study takes a closer look at the embodiment of patient-centred innovation in three online-communities for different patient-groups at university medical centre Radboudumc. From a perspective of organizational routines, an explorative and qualitative approach provides answers to the question why some of these innovations fail and others succeed, and provides several concrete recommendations for making future innovations succeed.