Connecting for Adoption and Adaptation of Innovation

Why supporting innovation adoption is important

There can often be a chasm between an innovation being developed and that innovation being adopted in health and care settings. It is often said that innovation takes around 17 years to enter health and care. This delay can be caused by lengthy waits around the decision to adopt and delays in following through with the innovation adopter pathway. Over the last three decades, there has been extensive work on how to introduce tested innovations faster and more successfully across a variety of health and care settings, including pharmaceutical, digital, technology, and workforce. This research is interdisciplinary, spanning business and management, implementation science, the psychological and behavioural sciences, as well as design and communication. Research across these fields makes it clear that support is required to reduce risks associated with innovation adoption and increase the likelihood of sustained success.

Making support available for the introduction and uptake of innovation is often overlooked in health, social care and wellbeing. It’s not easy to be one of the first few adoption sites for innovation and there are risks involved in changing how care or services are provided, even when it is for the better. The CAAI methodology has been released as a tested toolkit ready for use by organisations and networks as they support their innovation adopters.

Acknowledgements and thanks

This toolkit was developed in collaboration with health and care organisations, adoption site teams and Bevan Exemplars with the programme led by the Bevan Commission working across Wales.

This toolkit has been developed as part of the CAAI Methodology Toolkit and authored by a team from the Bevan Commission, working closely with Professor Nick Rich, Swansea University.

With thanks to colleagues and participants of the Adopt and Spread Programme (2019 -2021), the Bevan Commissioners, Steering Group members, organisation leads from the Health Boards and Trusts Bevan Exemplars and the Adopters and their teams.

The Adopt and Spread Programme was supported by our partner organisations including Swansea University, Life Sciences Hub Wales, NHS Wales Finance Academy, Accelerate, AgorIP, NHS Wales Informatics Service, NHS Wales Finance Delivery Unit. This toolkit was made possible with the funding and support of the Digital and Transformation Directorate, Welsh Government Health and Social Services.