Establishment of an innovation centre within an Irish acute hospital

Abstract

This paper explores the creation of a healthcare innovation centre, Innovate Health, in a large teaching hospital, Tallaght University Hospital (TUH), from inception to implementation. It sets the context in terms of Health Innovation globally as well as the Irish Health Innovation ecosystem and shares the roadmap for the development of an innovation centre such as Innovate Health. Innovate Health strives to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for innovation in TUH. This supports and fosters frontline healthcare staff ideas in the organisation to come forward for assistance in development and scaling. It also provides a dedicated point of entry for industry with innovative solutions and products to engage with the hospital for scoping and co-development, and to act as a potential test bed or early adopter. The authors identify opportunities and barriers to the development of innovation and describe the approach taken to break down the work plan into five workstreams: governance, culture and awareness, developing partnerships, funding and awards, and development of a pipeline of innovation projects. Benchmarking and the use of the ISO 56000 scorecard were found to be beneficial in providing targeted areas for improvement and monitoring advances of innovation within the organisation. The paper concludes with some broad recommendations for others embarking on this journey or interested in replicating a model similar to Innovate Health at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH).