Life cycle of Innovation in Surgery

Project Objective: We look at the applicability and limitations of various frameworks of innovation management with reference to surgical innovation. A major chunk of innovation in this field is continuous innovation, and so we also take a closer look at existing frameworks for managing continuous innovations in the surgical context. Surgical innovation, and medical innovation in general, is one of those fields where the recipient does not have the freedom to pay for and directly try out cutting edge innovations of interest. We intend to see how this affects the process of innovation, and related marketing decision making. We also take a look at other special issues that are specific to the surgical field, for example the challenge of early validation in the design phase, high regulation and approval costs, and more broadly how ethical concerns have the power to shape the outcomes of innovation in the surgical field. Project Scope: Surgery has a long history during which many innovations took place. We have narrowed the scope of our project to contemporary times, in order to study the influence of typical forces that drive innovation today. Sources: Bartnicka, J., Management of innovations in life cycle of surgical instruments. Izip Zakopane Conference 2012 Savitz, L, A life cycle model of continuous clinical process innovation. Journal of Healthcare Management 45:5 September/October 2000 Scott, J. W., Surgical Innovation: How to Strike the Right Balance? Br Med J 2001;323:1477 Wall LL, Brown D., The perils of commercially driven surgical innovation. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2010;202:30.e1-4. Gaps: 1. Lack of potential for primary research or validation of theories. 2. Possibly the project scope is still too large? Project Outcome: We intend to use our analysis of the field of surgical innovation to create a modified model of the process of innovation that we hope will be applicable to innovation in other industries that are handicapped by regulatory, financial and ethical concerns.