ABSTRACT
Sustaining innovation throughout the organization in the healthcare sector requires a fundamental understanding of the needs of the customer or patient. Given the changing environment, will opportunities be medical breakthroughs, patientfocused approaches, or cost-focused efforts? With decreasing reimbursement, focus on population health and value-based purchasing, the efforts need to focus on changing how care occurs, including reducing waste in both human resources and materials, avoiding duplication and unnecessary tests, and early intervention. Innovation opportunities must flow from these needs. Chapter 2 described the research efforts of Global Targeting, Inc. and how individual perceptions of innovation fall into three categories: new, improved, and change. Chapter 3 relied on the innovation model to explain the transformation from need to outcome to innovation reality. Chapter 4 describes how originality affects the decision
to proceed with innovation. The staggering cost of creating a breakthrough product or technology may limit its possibility. Therefore, those in the healthcare sector need to devise opportunities for innovation. Originality occupies three distinctive states for innovation: for new items, for new applications, and for new approaches. This chapter discusses these aspects of originality, within the healthcare sector as a guide.
