Innovation or decadence. There’s no middle ground

Josep Maria Monguet

Innovation is not a fad; it’s a structural phenomenon of the future, largely a product of the acceleration in the production of new knowledge. Innovation was always part of our world, but there are two new factors nowadays:

1. Accelerated innovation: more novelty in products and services are observed more frequently.
2. It's everyone's business: each one of us are protagonists of innovation.

We will be able to improve health services if we understand that all professionals and patients must participate in innovation, from the first to the last.

The professionals participating in the Delphi study on barriers to innovation in health put a score of 2.6 (scale 1 to 6) and highlight the deficit of professionals’ training (Health Consensus Barriers to innovation).

Training to innovate can’t be focused like conventional training and, to help create innovative health professionals, eight guide ideas must be followed:

1. Promote critical thinking

The first principle of innovation is that it questions the status quo. It’s not about applying formulas; you must know how to identify and analyse problems and ask questions.

2. Teamwork and results

The work teams for the innovation projects are multidisciplinary and are organized to solve specific problems and obtain results.

3. Collaborate in network

You must work and collaborate online in a context based less and less on authority and more on the ability to influence. You should build alliances to share objectives, interacting in an intercultural context.

4. Agility to adapt

The world is uncertain, complex and with volatile knowledge. Learning and unlearning in a perpetual and on-demand way, is not only applicable to knowledge, but also to one's mentality and attitudes.

5. Initiative and entrepreneurship

The capacity for initiative and entrepreneurship are essential. The challenges must be seen, understood and confronted with a spirit that must be built with will and intuition. You must constantly look for opportunities and ideas for improvement.

6. Communication

Communicating and arguing well, apart from techniques and grammar, is an extension of thinking clearly. Innovation demands new communication skills that can be learned and adapted to each individual style.

7. Up-to-date information

It’s necessary to know how to evaluate the relevance and the veracity of the accessed sources and the contents and above all, to manage its rapid updating.

8. Curiosity and imagination

Curiosity is the engine of new knowledge and innovation. One wonders how the world could be, imagine new more advanced scenarios and foresee how they will come true. A cultural change in organizations is necessary to understand that creativity is as much or more important than knowledge.

These are the principles that inspire the course PINNTS (Projects of innovation and technology in the health system) offered in Care Knowledge Centre.