Anne Marie Weggelaar: Innovating successfully? Listen to healthcare professional'
Anne Marie Weggelaar hopes to see many healthcare professionals at Zorg & ict. Because their voice is crucial when it comes to successful innovation. On the Tech Mailstage, she shares three lessons for successful innovation. As 'extraordinary professor of Innovation and Transformation of Healthcare' she still sees far too many examples of how not to do it.
Also join us for Anne Marie Weggelaar's session "Innovation through data availability on the road to true transformation in healthcare. She will be the keynote speaker on the Tech Mainstage of Zorg & ict at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9. Register for free admission.
Lesson 1. One hundred percent security does not exist. And is not necessary
"Because an innovation is by definition new, there are often no rules for it within healthcare organizations. So every department has to come up with rules for it. And those rules must be watertight before the next department is allowed to consider them.
"Those requirements for the security of software, for example, are really unprecedented. The Dutch bank has not even regulated this. Of course an electronic system is not one hundred percent secure, but neither was the paper system. Can't we balance the two against each other? What is an acceptable risk?"
"To determine that, we need to listen to healthcare professionals. We need their voice to 'calibrate' a little bit. Is this an acceptable risk or not? Take a lifting robot. Is it bad if there is a very small risk of someone falling out? Who will guarantee me that my mother will not fall when lifted by a healthcare professional? "
Lesson 2. Look at the ecosystem. Cramming something new into something old only creates extra work
Incorporating new technology into old work processes only creates additional work, Weggelaar said. "In the Netherlands we have thought for years 'if it works you have to implement it.' Rolling it out is then nothing more than flattening it. It doesn't work that way. A new way of working requires a new ecosystem. People have to work with it. What does it mean for their work? What does it do to work processes? If you keep the old system and put a new system next to it, you only need extra people. Whereas you wanted to save time."
Lesson 3. Solve the real problem. Start from facts and not suspicions
When an innovation is finally on the shop floor, all too often it turns out that it does not solve the problem that the healthcare professionals were facing. In the worst case scenario, they end up with more work. "Take the devices for putting on and removing compression stockings. The idea was good. But the systems that are in place now require far too much force. So they don't solve the problem."
"New products should be developed based on questions from the shop floor. And not based on suspicions. Before developing anything, ask caregivers what exactly they are up against. And what would really help them."
And once the product or service is there, happily discuss it. If it doesn't work, find a solution together. "What I see too often now is that a solution is delivered based on a problem that just doesn't work. Then you shouldn't say 'Piet is a bad supplier, he didn't deliver what I expected'. Learn together from the mistakes made and continue until you have a product that works as it should work next the end user."
Article by Maaike Zweers, Dutch Health Hub