Development of a health system framework to guide the analysis of innovation adoption in low and middle income countries

Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
South African Institute for Industrial Engineering
Abstract
Healthcare systems face numerous challenges that put strain on the system. This is despite the countless resources that are expended on creating innovative healthcare solutions (ranging from innovative healthcare technologies, organisational innovations to pharmaceutical innovations). The literature on innovation and healthcare has shown that the adoption of innovations in practice within the healthcare system is hindered and limited. There is a need to explore and evaluate the role of the innovation system in South Africa insofar as it impacts the adoption of innovations into the national healthcare system. As a starting point, for assessing innovation adoption into health systems, it is necessary to be able to thoroughly describe a health system. In this paper a consolidated health system framework is developed. The purpose of this framework is to be utilised when developing a healthcare innovation adoption framework, i.e. as an input to the healthcare innovation adoption framework. The methodology used to develop the consolidated health systems framework are the eight phases of Jabareen’s conceptual framework. Jabareen’s framework is a qualitative technique for developing conceptual frameworks. The advantages of using this conceptual framework methodology include its capability to be modified, its flexibility and the focus being placed on understanding, rather than on predictions. The results of this research paper are a consolidated health systems framework which was created by considering existing health system frameworks. The consolidated health systems framework thoroughly describes all aspects of a health system by combining elements from six existing health system frameworks. The elements of the existing frameworks were categorised, integrated and synthesised, as per Jabareen’s methodology, to create a complete view of a health system; which includes health processes, building blocks, intermediate objectives and goals. This paper contributes to the field of health systems engineering by providing an extensive list of existing health system frameworks and by providing a framework that combines the major aspects of a health system to thoroughly and completely describe health systems.
Description
CITATION: Leonard, E., De Kock, I. & Bam, W. 2018. Development of a health system framework to guide the analysis of innovation adoption in low and middle income countries. In SAIIE29 Proceedings, 24-26 October 2018, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The original publication is available at https://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/saiie29/saiie29/schedConf/presentations
Keywords
Health system framework, Medical care -- Technological innovations, Health care reform, Medical innovations, Change management, Health care -- Planning
Citation
Leonard, E., De Kock, I. & Bam, W. 2018. Development of a health system framework to guide the analysis of innovation adoption in low and middle income countries. In SAIIE29 Proceedings, 24-26 October 2018, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa