Unlocking the Future of Healthcare: Announcing the HSE Framework for Health Innovation

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is proud to announce the impending delivery of the first Framework for Health Innovation. A strategic blueprint designed to systematically foster and integrate innovation across Ireland's health and social care ecosystem. Developed through extensive collaboration, sponsored by the Chief Technology and Transformation Officer and the Chief Clinical Officer and co-ordinated by the Sláintecare Transformation and Innovation Office (STIO), this framework marks a pivotal moment in our collective journey towards a world-class health service.

The necessity for Innovation: Addressing our Challenges, Seizing Our Opportunities

The Irish health and social care system is navigating a dynamic landscape, shaped by evolving demographics, increasing demand for services, and the ongoing imperative for efficiency. While the spirit of innovation thrives across the HSE, it is recognised that there is a need for a more cohesive, national approach.

Historically, a lack of coordinated innovation could inadvertently create silos, leading to duplicated efforts and "innovation burnout" among our dedicated staff. Great ideas, though abundant, sometimes struggle to surface or achieve widespread impact due to:

• Limited Visibility: No comprehensive, centrally managed repository of innovation initiatives and lessons learned not fully established, hindering shared learning and cross-pollination of successful ideas.  
• Challenges in Scaling: Even highly impactful local innovations often struggle to achieve national scale or be effectively mainstreamed into routine service delivery, limiting their broader benefit.  
• Difficulties in Industry Access: Navigating the health system is challenging for external partners, including industry and start-ups, limiting our ability to leverage cutting-edge advancements and collaborative opportunities.  
• Inconsistent Support Pathways: A standardised enabling environment is needed to ensure all great solutions, regardless of origin, are consistently supported from inception through to evaluation and potential widespread adoption.  

The new Framework for Health Innovation directly addresses these challenges, providing a robust and transparent function to ensure innovation is consistently supported, effectively coordinated, and strategically leveraged.

The Vision: A dynamic and responsive ecosystem

The vision is clear - to cultivate a dynamic and responsive health and social care ecosystem in Ireland, where innovation is systematically identified, developed, and scaled to enhance patient outcomes, improve service delivery, and foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. This aligns seamlessly with the ambitious digitisation agenda and the transformative objectives of the Sláintecare programme, including integrated care and shifting services closer to communities.  

The Pillars of Progress: How the framework will work

The Framework for Health Innovation is built upon six interconnected pillars, each pillar is developed to guide efforts and ensure a systematic approach to innovation:

1. Vision and Culture: The framework will assist in fostering a dynamic and psychologically safe environment where curiosity, safe experimentation, and continuous learning is expected. It will assist in encouraging new ideas from all staff and patients and will formally recognise innovators.  
2. Visibility and Traceability: It will develop a central repository which will systematically record and track innovation from end-to-end, providing transparency and enabling collaboration across the system. This will reduce duplication and ensure valuable insights are shared.  
3. Assess and Evaluate: The framework will ensure that all innovation initiatives are rigorously assessed and evaluated, are aligned with system goals, critical population needs, and adhere to public value, ethics, safety, and compliance. This data-driven approach ensures investment in initiatives with the highest potential for impact.  
4. Enable and Support: The framework will provide clear, supported, and 'right-sized' pathways for innovators, offering expert advice, dedicated resources, and fostering partnerships with academia, industry, and other sectors. This ensures ideas are nurtured from concept to implementation.  
5. Deliver and Transform: This pillar focuses on the practical implementation and embedding of successful innovations into routine healthcare operations aligned with the National Service Plan (NSP). It involves validating effectiveness, rolling out solutions across relevant services or regions and ensuring long-term adoption and benefit realisation.  
6. Extract and Grow Value: The framework will support and maximise the impact of successful innovations by sharing learnings, scaling solutions across the system, and leveraging foresight and horizon scanning to anticipate future needs and seize emerging opportunities. This proactive approach ensures the health service is future-proofing.  

These pillars are underpinned by a robust foundation that ensures every innovation is Citizen/Patient Centric, undergoes Continuous Evaluation of Benefits and Value, operates with Streamlined Governance and Oversight, and maintains a steadfast Focus on Safety and Compliance.  

Positive impact on our ecosystem:

The Framework for Health Innovation will profoundly and positively impact our ecosystem by:

• Empowering Our People: By cultivating a culture of innovation and providing consistent support pathways, we empower frontline staff to bring forward their ideas, fostering a sense of ownership and driving continuous improvement from within.  
• Enhancing Patient Care: With a strong emphasis on being user-centred and aligning for impact, innovations will directly address patient needs, leading to improved health outcomes, better access to services, and an enhanced patient experience.  
• Driving Efficiency and Value: By reducing duplication, streamlining processes, and rigorously evaluating benefits, the framework will ensure that resources are optimally utilised, delivering greater value across the health service.  
• Strengthening Partnerships: Clear pathways for industry access and a commitment to connecting across boundaries will facilitate stronger collaborations with research bodies, health technology companies, and other external partners, bringing cutting-edge solutions into our system more effectively.  
• Accelerating Transformation: By enabling the scaling of successful innovations and fostering a future-ready mindset, the framework will accelerate our journey towards integrated, digitally-enabled care, aligning with the ambitious goals of Sláintecare.  

A Collaborative Effort for a Brighter Future:

This framework is the result of extensive collaboration with numerous HSE departments and external stakeholders, including HSE Technology and Transformation, HSE Spark Innovation, HSE Organisational Change Unit (OCU), HSE Digital Health Clinical Office (DHCO), HSE Regional Hubs, TUH Innovation, Health Innovation Hub Ireland, HealthTech Ireland, academia, patient representation and many more. This collective effort underscores our shared commitment to innovation.