Title: Collaborative innovation in healthcare: a case study of hospitals as innovation platforms

Authors: Pauliina Hyrkäs; Lotta Haukipuro; Satu Väinämö; Marika Iivari; Anna Sachinopoulou; Jukka Majava

Addresses: Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, Oulu University Hospital, P.O. Box 10, FI-90029 OYS, Finland ' Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 8000, FI-90014, Finland ' Centre for Health and Technology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, FI-90014, Finland ' Oulu Business School, Martti Ahtisaari Institute, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, FI-90014, Finland ' VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Kaitoväylä 1, FI-90570 Oulu, Finland ' Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4610, FI-90014, Finland

Abstract: Rising healthcare costs and vast business opportunities in health markets have resulted in a great demand to enhance innovation creation. However, innovation development in healthcare is challenging because of the fragmented and complicated context. Potential means to tackle the challenges include utilising the concepts of open innovation and co-creation, which require organisations to develop new roles and relationships with multiple stakeholders. This paper analyses a 12-month co-creation project where a new collaboration model for healthcare innovations was developed by a hospital, research partners, and companies. We demonstrate how organisations experiment with collaborative innovation in the healthcare context, and what was learned from this experimentation. The study utilises an action research approach and a case study strategy. The co-creation model applied can produce innovations that meet the end-users' needs, but successful implementation requires careful planning, creating separate development paths for idea-type and more mature solutions, and the commitment of project participants.

Keywords: co-creation; collaboration; healthcare; hospital; innovation; open innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVCM.2020.105475

International Journal of Value Chain Management, 2020 Vol.11 No.1, pp.24 - 41

Received: 02 May 2019
Accepted: 28 Jun 2019

Published online: 02 Mar 2020 *

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