Innovation in the NHS
Posted by Nic Dooley-Edwards, August 5th, 2011.
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I have been invited to take part in a national survey to help build towards a report on innovation in the NHS service for England and Wales.
As a design consultancy working within the medical sector, I would say that Innovation is an integral part of delivering healthcare for today and the future- however my opinion my be slightly bias.
Innovation does not just mean designing a new product - to Innovate means to improve, push boundaries and make things better - exactly what the NHS was set up to do, These principles should be at the core of the NHS framework to strive to deliver a better healthcare service.
Innovation is applied to all aspects of healthcare and the NHS, whether that be designing a new drug delivery system, or innovating and pushing the boundaries of medical science to 'design' new ground-breaking medications. Science is design, and Design is science- they are both a process of elimination and pool selection to filter out the best combinations to deliver the strongest outcome.
Without Innovation, UK healthcare and the NHS will risk its progress of previous decades and accelerate backwards as one of the best healthcare systems in the world.
Since the new governments cut-backs in Innovation, the R&D sectors have been hit hard. There are individuals and companies out there with great ideas and innovative solutions to many of the problems facing our healthcare professionals and patients, ideas that will make patients lives safer and more comfortable, and even save lives and it appears that these ideas are being repressed because of a lack of funding.
I understand that cuts have to be made, but funding in innovation within the NHS has advantages for all. It benefits the NHS staff and patients, but it also creates and safe-guards jobs, it helps keep the funding here in the UK, supporting UK businesses innovation and manufacturing.
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