Lemere, Alyssa, HCI 311, 7 Pillars of Innovation

1. References

2. Pillar 4: Evidence Based Practice

2.1. Definition: Evidence Based Practice takes into play, the best research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values and preferences to come up with the best policy for an outcome.

2.2. Example: Not only does evidence based practice work on behalf of the employees within healthcare, but the patients also benefit from it as well. A study was done in an acute care hospital where evidence based practice was implemented. "Health care professionals’ EBP beliefs, EBP implementation, and organizational culture were measured withvalid and reliable instruments. Patient outcomes were collected in aggregate from the hospital’smedical records" (Melnyk, 2017 pg. 5). The results from the study showed that evidence based practice helped the employees improve on their work and the culture of EBP is innovating and results in an increase in patient outcome as well. If evidence based practice is implemented in all healthcare systems, the safety and quality of patient care will improve tremendously.

3. Pillar 5: FInance

3.1. Definition: Finance is the management of money, which provides funding opportunities to move innovation forward. Analyzed deeply are the potential for savings and profits to ensure that innovation is implemented.

3.2. Example: Finance plays a big role in health innovation. In order to get funding for innovative ideas it is important to understand the financing behind it and how to handle the money that goes into innovation. Eggerston (2015) points out, "Many stakeholders suggested the idea of a fund and an agency to administer it to ensure that innovation is applied on the frontlines of care" (para 5). This fund would be help create a new model for the federal engagement in the healthcare system. Thinking about new and innovative ideas to help the healthcare system is innovative in itself. By focusing on finances it ensures that there is thought gone into how to improve medical care and focus will be all on the front rather than letting individuals figure out how to find improvements. By making innovations in finance the quality of care and outcomes will only improve.

4. Pillar 6: Technology and Communication

4.1. Definition: Technology and communication work together to get the word out about new and innovative ideas to advance concepts and to get them accepted.

4.2. Example: Technology and communication has transformed tremendously in healthcare over the last ten years. The last couple of summers I have had the opportunity to work in a doctor's office in a small town in Michigan. The office is very old school therefore all the medical records are on paper. After a while, it got very confusing with all the papers, which is why I believe that electronic records are a much better idea. Reis, Visser, and Frankel (2013), believe that "the office visit of yesterday is rapidly being transformed into medical care to go" (pg.361). I completely agree with comment and believe that our future is heading towards less doctor visits and more online forms of treatment and care. I believe that this has its pros and cons, being that it could be cheaper, but some could be misdiagnosed and the ending results may not be as good. All in all, I believe that the future of our healthcare communication and technogoly is very optimistic.

5. Pillar 1: Innovation Process

5.1. Definition: The innovation process is a process in which an idea is formed and evaluated. Once the idea has been formed and evaluated, the idea becomes developed and tested and eventually put into production to soon become marketed.

5.2. Example: While the innovation process in healthcare is much slower than other industries, it is definitely promising. According to Gerberding (2010), "The Healthcare epidemiology is a robust and adaptable profession with the noble mission of protecting patients and their healthcare providers from infectious diseases and other threats" (p. 2). Advances in Healthcare are promising and with new and innovative ideas rooting from the past, the health care epidemiology will be extremely advanced by 2020. With the rapid increase in healthcare professions, a process of innovation will only do good for healthcare. Once a creative process is formed and made to perfection, but able to become more perfected with time, our healthcare system will rise in numbers and in quality of care.

6. Pillar 2: Leadership

6.1. Definition: Leadership is an action of influencing other people and organizations to be the best. A leader guides individuals to strive for a goal while pushing people to achieve said goal and realizing the potential within the people and/or organization.

6.2. Example: Leaders have everything to do with building the healthcare system around us, the leaders in health are the reason for new and innovative ideas that are saving the world everyday. Our healthcare systems are all about the people, the patient. McAlearney (2006), points out in her qualitative study that it is important for our leaders to join together to perform the best care for the patient. This means that not only do leaders in different areas of healthcare, for example, a lead doctor, a lead nurse, and a leader in the organizational aspect, contribute to the overall care of the patient, but they make the process much faster and easier for everyone (p 969). Overall, with great leaders will come great and new innovative ideas to push our healthcare system to be the best.

7. Pillar 3: Policy

7.1. Definition: Policy is a course of action one takes to add a detailed process to a principle using laws and ethical guidelines.

7.2. Example: At the end of the day, your healthcare lies within the policies within the healthcare system. With new innovating policies, our healthcare system will flourish for the better. Coculescu (2015) points out "Due to the implementation of policies/ strategies, marketing, healthcare organizations are on the one hand, thanks to new information technologies and new media, in the situation of being up to date in an attempt to keep pace with an accelerated changing market and position themselves ahead of the competition" (pg.441). With that being said, strengthening policies in one area and making them innovative will only strengthen the whole system in the end.

8. Pillar 7: Outcomes

8.1. Definition: An outcome is a conclusion that is drawn from the result of something. It can also be used to manage short and long term results.

8.2. Example: Gallet (2017) points out that "healthcare spending is an input into the production of health, these studies regress health outcomes" (pg.9). With that being said, although their is a tremendous increase in the spending on healthcare, the outcomes have improved significantly. It is important to realize that to improve our healthcare system we need increase spending's in certain areas to ensure that our outcomes continue to look good in the future. The future is very optimistic and the outlook on healthcare outcomes is bright. If we focus on the outcomes of people rather than what is put into it, many more people will be saved and will result in a better patient outcome if we start to focus on it rather than the input.