Browsing by Author "Marais, Annica"
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- ItemA management tool towards the development of healthcare innovation platforms(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University., 2018-03) Marais, Annica; Grobbelaar, Sara; Kennon, Denzil; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The healthcare sector is constantly under pressure given rising patient demands, an increasing population and a lack of infrastructure and resources available in South Africa (SA). These trends result in mounting pressures and demands, which calls for renewed efforts in improving service delivery and access to basic healthcare. Healthcare systems are expected to deliver high quality services whilst simultaneously addressing complex challenges within resource constrained environments. The impetus of improved access to quality care, has seen healthcare organisations adopt diverse top-down approaches. These efforts have led to islands of success, but have had a disappointing impact on a larger scale. A key challenge that SA faces, pertains to the difficulty of achieving integration across healthcare value chains (VC). This study investigates innovation platforms (IP) as an approach towards addressing some of the shortcomings of previously implemented solutions. IPs are mechanisms that bring together different stakeholders to diagnose common problems, identify opportunities and find ways to better achieve their goals. IPs are a solution to addressing healthcare challenges in a sustainable manner and are theorised to assist in the integration of VC actors. The proposed value of IPs is its ability to introduce a gateway to all healthcare VC actors to contribute towards creating a better functioning healthcare system that serves to benefit the broader society and economy. The IP perspective creates an opportunity for the development of appropriate innovations that can efficiently be scaled across the sector. There is however a lack of evidence of appropriate methods regarding the development and operation of healthcare IPs in SA. This study proceeds to develop a framework and a tool that provides a guideline towards the formation and functioning of IPs that aim to solve challenges within healthcare VCs. This allows for the integration and consideration of opinions of all VC actors during decision-making and policy development. The research follows a constructivist perspective, which seeks to aid better understanding of phenomena. A systematic review is conducted to identify the core IP concepts from extant literature. The study identified 24 types of IPs and provides a brief overview of these platforms. This thesis identifies and investigates two major trends, seven IP dimensions and 39 core IP concepts. The prevalence of these concepts differs with respect to the type of IP that is investigated. Guided by the tenets of Jabareen’s Conceptual Framework Analysis, that consist of eight phases, the framework is iteratively developed through synthesising the IP concepts with the major trends in literature, validating the preliminary framework, and incorporating the validation findings in the final tool design. To address the lack of empirical research in this field, the framework and the identified areas of literature were tested. This was done by adopting a mixed methodology approach comprising of four progressive stages: (1) qualitative semi-structured interviews, (2) a quantitative framework-ranking exercise, (3) a qualitative case study and (4) qualitative case study supporting interviews. Finally, the validated framework and supporting typologies are assembled to create an IP management tool that enables: 1) building IPs; 2) facilitating improvement efforts of existing platforms; and 3) providing platforms with tools to address commonly experienced challenges. This tool’s main aim is to provide guidelines on how to interact in and with IPs. The tool adopts a VC approach and enables the development of IPs that align with the WHO’s health system building blocks. The unique contribution that this study introduces is the tool’s novelty. The developed conceptual framework guides the formation and functioning of healthcare IPs and is embedded within the management tool. The framework is validated as needed, reliable, relevant and useful within the healthcare domain. The efficiency, effectiveness and applicability of the framework is also confirmed prior to the development of the IP management tool. The systematic approach followed lends itself to future development and expansion. The validation results indicate a positive response, however, further study is required with implementation, tracking the tool through its implementation and the critical issues that arise from this.