Funded projects

The NHS is experiencing a massive amount of technological change. In all areas of healthcare, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic and informatics technologies are being developed that have potential to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of ...

The NHS is experiencing a massive amount of technological change. In all areas of healthcare, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic and informatics technologies are being developed that have potential to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the NHS. Indeed, actual improvement of NHS services is dependent on the extent to which new technologies can be adopted successfully. It is the case, however, that adoption of this new technology will inevitably lead to the need for organisational change, re-design of NHS processes and the re-definition of staff roles but unfortunately technologies are not neutral black boxes that work irrespective of the social context into which they are introduced. There has to be a fit between the social context and the technology. The people in an organisation must not only accept the technology but also be willing to change their own patterns of working.This research is concerned with whether technologies developed within the NHS have inherently different adoption characteristics compared with technologies developed outside the NHS. It is asking whether the fact a technology was developed by NHS staff, in an NHS context, makes it more or less likely to be adopted successfully in other parts of the NHS.After an initial survey of NHS developed technologies, six internally-developed technologies will be identified for further research and compared with six comparable technologies developed outside the NHS. A total of 12 case sites will be investigated, six using the internally-developed technologies and six using externally-developed. Detailed case studies will be prepared that look at adoption policy and processes.These will then be used to develop an understanding of how a technology's origin impacts on its adoption.

This research will investigate whether the adoptability of NHS-developed technologies is greater than that of commercially-developed technologies. Its main aim is to assess whether the balance of influence on technology development between technology users and ...

This research will investigate whether the adoptability of NHS-developed technologies is greater than that of commercially-developed technologies. Its main aim is to assess whether the balance of influence on technology development between technology users and technology suppliers impacts on the success or failure of the adoption process. It thus addresses a question posed in a major literature review looking at the spread and sustainability of innovation in the NHS (Greenhalgh et al, 2004. p. 617):What mix of what factors tends to produce "adoptable" innovations (e.g. ones that have clear advantages beyond their source organisation and low implementation complexity and are readily adaptable to new contexts)?The research will seek to answer the following questions: (i) Do user-developed products perform differently in the technology assessment processes (evidence-based and preference-based) underpinning adoption decisions? (ii) What part do informal professional networks play in adoption decisions? (ii) Does the origin of the technology impact on the compatibility of a technology for adoption within an NHS organisation? (iv) Do user-developers have a greater opportunity to gather evidence and develop implementation guidelines that support the adoption decision process and does this allow them to achieve better trialability? (v) Does the source of the technology impact upon the perceived relative advantage and the perceived complexity and if so, how?The research will recruit participants who work in the NHS as clinicians or in other professions allied to medicine. It is envisaged that the participants will be working in acute NHS trusts. Other participants may be drawn from private sector healthcare technology providers where appropriate.An interpretive case study approach (Eisenhardt 1989; Klein and Myers 1999; Jones 2001; Yin 2003; Walsham 2006) will be adopted. Following a preliminary survey, six cases will be selected involving the adoption of NHS-developed technologies. All the cases will be selected on the basis that they incorporate a significant element of exploitable intellectual property. Other characteristics will also be taken into account including: nature of the product, e.g., therapeutic/diagnostic medical devices, service improvement; extent to which adoption impacts on service design; extent of adoption; and level of success.After consultation with the stakeholders on a case by case basis, each of the six cases will then be paired with another benchmark case, where adoption of a competing commercially developed product has taken place. If no competing product exists, the adoption of an equivalent commercially developed product will be selected instead. This benchmarking will allow the importance of different characteristics of NHS-developed and commercially-developed technology that effects adoption to be noted so that causality can be attributed by process analysis and the development of theory.The research will apply wider social science theories of organisational learning, knowledge management, technological innovation, institution theory, and systems literatures, as conceptual lenses for the twelve case studies. This analysis will aid a better theoretical understanding of how a technology's origin impacts on its adoptability in the NHS. This improved understanding can then be used to inform both high-level NHS policy and technology adoption practices at the level of NHS trusts.