Open innovation in health care services management : using visual analytics to enhance the innovation environment

This paper discusses the concepts of innovation and visual analytics in the context of redesigning health care services management. Many health care systems around the world are under continual pressure to improve. Most improvement initiatives have been trialled in the physical environment and this had led to resistance to change and change fatigue. This research proposes to engage the process user as the process innovator to bring open innovation to the management of health care service delivery. The use of visual analytics as a communication and analysis tool for trials in a virtual environment offers a solution to the problem of change fatigue and resistance to change. This approach is aimed at enhancing the communication channels between health professionals and also to provide a common platform for clinicians and managers to contribute together to design innovations to improve their own work processes for the benefit of quality and performance in health care service delivery.