Rethinking User Involvement in the Front End of Healthcare Innovation

• The purpose of this paper is to share insights from an empirical study within the Swedish healthcare system, based on a case study of the largest business unit of a Swedish medical technology company and its key customer segment. The study involving a Swedish medical technology company and three Swedish hospitals indicates need to move away from an archetypical, largely homogeneous view of the user, towards a more flexible, heterogeneous user perspective. Following from that insight the paper outlines a preliminary model aimed at improving the conditions of the firm for user involvement in the front end of healthcare innovation. In the proposed model, different users are brought to the foreground in different parts of the front-end innovation process. The research performed aimed at putting the business unit in a more beneficial position to involve users in the front end of innovation by increasing their understanding of a) which user types they actually have access to, b) which roles that different user types may take in the various stages of the innovation front-end.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Övrig annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Annan maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Other Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

innovation engineering

innovationsteknik

user involvement

healthcare innovation

fuzzy front end

medical technology

lead users

product development

IPDM

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