NHS Change Day - what factors help innovation to spread?

Champions – people within organisations who lead change – play a pivotal role in supporting the spread of innovation. As new research carried out by Ipsos on behalf of the Qatar Foundation shows, this holds true across different countries’ health systems. Our recent study – the Global Diffusion of Healthcare Innovation (GDHI)¹ – explores what factors have helped to support the spread of innovation across eight different countries’ health systems. In England, many of those we spoke to highlighted just how important the attitudes and behaviours of healthcare professionals are in helping to support the successful spread of ideas and ways of working across the NHS. Factors such as strong leadership, individual champions and networks of relationships between healthcare professionals were seen as among the most important factors that have helped to facilitate and support real change.

Starting as a conversation on social media between a group of trainee doctors, young leaders and improvement facilitators, NHS Change Day has developed into an annual focal point for those in the NHS wishing to challenge the status quo. There are numerous stories of the positive changes that came out of last years’ event and it is hoped that today will produce an even greater commitment. The first NHS Change Day resulted in 189,000 pledges of action to do something different to make a real difference to patient care and health outcomes; this year the target is for 500,000.

Crucially the focus of the day is not static; it is not simply about changing the way something is done in just one place or at just one time. Instead it is about sustainable and continued change, sharing positive changes and inspiring others to do the same so they spread across the health system. It is about driving improvements and innovations from the bottom up by creating the opportunity for all those in the health service to be leaders or champions of change.

Creating an army of champions to drive forward change is perhaps NHS Change Day’s greatest challenge, but the evidence from the GDHI suggests that it is definitely a challenge worth accepting. Identifying and supporting champions was ranked by healthcare professionals as the most prevalent front-line attitude and behaviour (or cultural dynamic) supporting the spread of innovation in six of the eight countries included in the study. This not only highlights the importance with which this is held, but also demonstrates that focusing effort on identifying and supporting champions can lead to real world success.

• For more information on the GDHI please visit the microsite at: www.ipsos-mori.com/gdhi

Note 1: The GDHI was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Qatar Foundation in partnership with Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) at Imperial College London. Findings from the study were presented at the first World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Doha in December 2013. For more information on WISH please visit: www.wish-qatar.org

This blog was written by David Jeans, Research Manager and Emily Gray, Research Director, Health Research, Social Research Institute.

Technical Note

The research comprises both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was generated through a total of 103 in-depth interviews conducted between August and October 2013 with healthcare experts across the eight countries. These experts were selected as having a strategic overview of their country’s health system and they cover a range of players in the health system. The quantitative data was gathered from a survey of a total of 1,521 healthcare professionals (HCPs) and 772 health product industry professionals (IPs) conducted between August and October 2013. The survey was conducted online in all countries except Qatar and South Africa, where it was conducted face-to-face as a more appropriate way of accessing these respondents.