Innovation is one of the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital's strategic commitments

Ten (10) years have elapsed since the  Innovation and Research Department at the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, and we believe that now would be a good time to take stock of its history, of the valuable lessons we have learnt and also to share them.

For this reason, thanks to the journal Harvard Deusto Business Review, we can share our experience in the article entitled Challenges and lessons in health innovation: the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, reviewing ten years of strategic commitment to innovation, which was published in November this year.

The authors analyse the creation process of the Innovation Department, the historical and economic setting in which it was created, the innovation model chosen and how it has developed in the course of these 10 years.

Finally, the article lists three lessons that we have learnt in our journey towards innovation in the Hospital: that managerial support is crucial; that it is important to combine different focuses in the innovation process and that continuous learning is of the essence.

The signatories of the article include Marcel Planellas, professor of the General and Strategic Department of the ESADE Business School (Universitat Ramon Llull), Jorge Juan Fernández, Director of Innovation at EIT Health and former head of eHealth at the Hospital, and Ivan Bofarull, director of Global Insights & Strategic Initiatives at the ESADE Business School.

The SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital innovation model

The SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital avails itself of innovation to transform ideas into value. Sometimes, this value will be financial, creating greater revenue; on other occasions the benefits yielded will not be economic, but improvements in processes and in the experience of our patients. In all cases, the ultimate goal is to transform the provision of care and to improve the experience of pregnant mothers, children and relatives.

One aspect emphasised by the article is how the hospital has always distinguished between innovation and research/investigation, although both concepts are clearly related or linked. In a scenario of dwindling resources, the commitment to research and investigation is a safer bet and the results are more quantifiable; nevertheless, SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital is also committed to innovation as one of the site’s strategic positioning tools.

For a better understanding of our journey in hospital innovation, read the article in the Harvard Deusto Business Review.