Leadership and innovation in the healthcare sector
Leadership and innovation in the healthcare sector. Blogpost by Eeva Kiuru for HIMSS Europe 2019 and Health 2.0
Innovation culture needs a grassroots boost in health and social care.
Aging society is putting pressure on the health and welfare systems. The current health and social care is poorly designed to the increasing masses. The growing needs can’t be fulfilled with the current system.
All this development is not coming as a surprise. We have known this trend for ages. And yet we are slow in renewing our systems. Already now we are experiencing trouble in managing the aging population welfare. It is easy to see that there will be chaos after the amount of aging population doubles.
A CULTURE OF CHANGE TO OVERCOME OUR CHALLENGES
The only way to solve these challenges is to innovate. And in order to innovate more we need a culture change in healthcare and welfare. We need a new culture of grassroots innovation.
The health and social care personnel needs empowerment into innovation culture so that every nurse, physician or social worker is capable to innovate. Innovation can be about simple improvements or radical overhauls.
In an innovative culture the key is that there is no fear of speaking out problems. There is also no fear of sharing new ideas of solving those problems. Like in any developing organisation, it is a natural part of every professionals work to spark improvement ideas. This should be a natural part of every healthcare professional’s work as well.
Cultural change starts from the leadership. I am looking forward to visit the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Conference in Helsinki, Finland in 11-13 June 2019 to see and hear from the leaders of healthcare how they embrace grassroots innovation in their leadership.
Eeva Kiuru
M.Sc., Certified Teacher
Health Innovation Advisor and Educator
This article was originally written and published by Eeva Kiuru as Social Media Ambassador for HIMSS Europe 2019 and Health 2.0 Helsinki event in 11.-13. June, 2019.