What is a Health Systems Innovation Centre and Why Does Everyone Want One?

Abstract

Our Health Care Systems, especially our hospitals, were designed primarily to provide episodic care for acute occurrences of single diseases. With our aging population and the predominance of chronic diseases, highly integrated and coordinated care is required. This demands a “systems re‐design”, not just making the old system better. Additionally, higher expectations of patients and families to be involved in and co‐direct their care, and the advent of rapidly evolving mobile information technology (mHealth), requires an innovative and “agile” approach to this re‐design process. To be sustainable, innovation must improve the experience of care for both patients and health care providers, as well as produce clinical and financial outcomes that are at least as good as or better than current care. Health Systems Centres of Innovation can be provide “new ways of thinking” about health care, and the creativity to sustainably re‐design our Health Care Systems.