ABSTRACT
THE BEGINNING DECADES OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY HAVE BEEN unsettling. Worldwide, many have been affected by natural disasters, terrorism, wars, the Arab Spring, drought and famine, pandemics and fi nancial turbulence. Faced with unprecedented demographic changes and corresponding health and social care needs, coupled with the incapacity to sustain these fi nancially, governments are having to make tough decisions that may have adverse effects on the quality of life not only of today’s generation but also of the next. Along with services such as education, social care, the police and the military, healthcare has become a major area for scrutiny, as both societal expectations and costs to meet them have risen sharply over the past few decades. Addressing these urgent issues – key drivers of change – may no longer simply be a matter of ‘doing things better’ (evolutionary change) or more effi ciently but, rather, learning how to ‘do better things’ (innovation).
