Facilitating Innovation in Healthcare

The assignment content discusses the importance of cultural capital, strategic capital, social capital, and economic capital in facilitating innovation in healthcare sector, specifically in the context of Dr Thom, an online app that allows patients to access their health information. The essay highlights the need for entrepreneurs to develop these forms of capital to promote the app's services and support in the UK market.

INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1...........................................................................................................................................1
Discuss and evaluate characteristics of Dr Thom as an innovation.............................................1
TASK 2...........................................................................................................................................4
Entrepreneurship in relation to delivering Dr Thom to a Muslim community in London...........4
TASK 3...........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................8
References.....................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a process that changes into ideas and development into good or services
which can generates standard for what consumer’s need. The study has been emphasizing on Dr
Thom app which helps the patient to get access of health aspects. Dr Thom online app would
give the national health care sector a new look. They were using face to face interaction service
and now with this app there would be no face to face service because it’s all online. Thus, focus
has been laid on contribution of innovation of services for Muslim community.
TASK 1
Discuss and evaluate characteristics of Dr Thom as an innovation.
The innovation includes cautious application of material, thoughts and creativity in
originating better or changed ethics from resources, it also involves all developments by
innovative concepts that can created and transformed into beneficial products. In organization
innovation are frequently outcomes after concepts are functional by organization instruction to
additional satisfy the necessity and expectations of the customers.
Here is a demonstration on how to be applying Bessant &Tidd (2017) four types of
definition on innovation changes and there are product, process, position and paradigm. Bessant
&Tidd (2017) also define the two types of method on innovation which can indicate whether it’s
an incremental or radical.
Product: NHS is providing services to patient in need for the treatment for sexual
transmitted, or any other women’s or men’s health issues but due to religions strictness some
Muslim community avoid going to the doctors in case they ask them to remove clothes which
there are not comfortable in. By launching Dr Thom online app can make them or other patient
feel more confident and open about their health condition, in this online app where patient can
receive online consultation from doctors but without seeing them face to face (Rcm.org.uk.
(2017). They do not have to worry about phoning and booking appointments as this app can
allow them to receive fast services within few hours. Dr Thom app can provide wide range of
treatment for patient.
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Processes: Dr Thom app would be based online, where patient can contact them via
computer, laptops, tablets, or any smart phone. Patient would be required to register online, once
they registration is completed and have all the information on their medical history from their
general practitioner. This would help doctor to provide patient the right treatment via online app.
The app would also allow patients to upload photo of their infected part of the body without any
hesitation.
Position: Dr Thom online app would add some values to the national health services.
Adding value would not means adding profits; it is improving their services better way of
dealing with patients need. It would also add modern touch with technologies help.
Paradigm: It is the same services but instead make calls to book appointment, all patient
would have to do it online. This would allow patients maintaining their privacy and have more
confident, secure about their medical needs. This innovation can bring best out of the health care
services, on how they deal with patients. As all the services can be provided to the patients via
online, patient can avail this facility by few touches.
Radical: Over all this is radical change in innovation according to Bessant &Tidd (2017)
in the process service or product because most of the surgeries are using online services to
improve their services. As Dr Thom is not a marketing method and consumer need, therefore
incremental and radical cannot work together, it must use one of these to be applicable changing
in innovation, because every time a Muslim patient comes for this kind of consultation they
would require female doctor or if they don’t speak well English they even want female
interpreter to be female as well. (Rcm.org.uk.2017).So, when the services move online would be
more radical then incremental. Incremental services can be changing doctors, because there are
no female nurses or doctor.
Target market According to Bessant &Tidd (2017)also discuss innovation in term of how
it would face or interact with the market, a market pull innovation is one that’s driven by markets
need, whereas technology push is one that’s is push to the market by the innovator. Muslim
female community are often worried about going to the male doctor, because the religion does
not allow women to discuss medical needs or show their body part to other than their husband, it
is forbidden for women. (Rcm.org.uk.2017).Therefore, a technology such as Dr Thom which
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removes that’s barrier of, might be consider as market pull innovation, which requires a market
innovation.
The characteristics of Dr Thom as an innovation are analyze, evaluated and discussed evaluated
within Rogers (1983) model of diffusion as presented in Bessant &Tidd (2017). The areas of
analysis are perceived relative advantages, Observability, complexity, trialability and
compatibility.
Perceived Relative Advantage: The advantages are no face to face interaction, upload
picture of infected part, time consuming, no need of interpreter, no fix hours to use the app.
Compared to old services like opening hours 9am to 6:30pm of the surgery and patient
physically should be there, sometime waiting time can be up hours, and if someone who cannot
speak English would wait longer for someone to be available for them to interpret. And phoning
doctors to find out if there is any females’ doctor are available and if they appointments are fully
booked for weeks can put the rating of the surgery down according to Nhs.uk. (2017). Female
Muslim community can take advantages of Dr Thom app which would offer them to feel free to
avail these services, so they do not have to worry about seeing a male or female doctor as it’s
going to be online and they do not have undress in front of them. The app would have allowed
them to write in their own language and it would translate it for them in English. Dr Thom app is
time consuming so with this they can use it whenever and where ever they want to with internet
on the phones (BusinessDictionary.com. (2017).
Observability: there is a space in the healthcare sector for this type of innovation; this
can fit in well as it would take less capacity to progress into better future. Once the patient starts
using this app they would see the benefits and advantages of it (Pillay & Morris, 2016). As it
would be offering them to be private& confidential treatments, and it would have cure of their
illness.
Complexity: It would be easy to use Dr Thom app as because now days most of
population is using social media, to adopt new type of invention. For example, most of the
Muslim community female have their own social groups on what’s app, where they help each
other on any type of matters and there would be a video available for them to see how they can
use this app. So, complexity would not be a problem for those who already use social media.
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Complexity would matter to elder generation, as they would prefer the old services, but surgery
can train staff to teach patients on how to use the app, offer them to download the app on their
phone and show them how can they use it, if they go home and get stuck, there would a button
for help, which would offer them instruction and the video on how to use the app. NHS have
recourses where they send elder people or anyone who need want learn on how to use internet.
(England.nhs.uk.2017)
Trialability: The app would available online for patient to use it or for trial basis,
without going to the doctors. They will be period where app can see why people are not using it
after certain time, at that point app can make changes for patient to use it. App within would
make improvement according to patients need, the app would be review on regularly basis and
unnecessary content will come off.
Compatibility: This type of innovation can easily be adopting by gadget user, such
computer, laptop, tablets or any smart phone. It can work on any platform like IOS, Android and
on windows. Muslim community females are using these platforms to avail medical treatment
without going to the doctors due to religion strictness, but if they use this app they would not
have concern who would be the doctor, or would they need an interpreter and worried about
undress themselves in front of anyone (Pillay, 2014).
TASK 2
Entrepreneurship in relation to delivering Dr Thom to a Muslim community in London.
In entrepreneurship the size and will to change, classify and manage a business scheme
length wise with any type of risk to improves services in an organization. An entrepreneurship
can be a person who can exploit market opportunity through technical and or organization
innovation. In economics, entrepreneurship joint with property, industry usual funds and
principal can produce good incomes. Entrepreneurial essence it considered through invention and
taking risk, and its vital part of a state’s capability to thrive in constantly altering and
progressively modest world-wide marketplace (Ostrovsky & Barnett, 2014).
Entrepreneurship of bring Dr Thom to the market will be discussed within Bessant &Tidd
(2017) &Thomas and Mueller (2000)innovation frame work and entrepreneurship process frame
work.
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Entrepreneurial goals and context: Dr Thom app aim to get patient who hesitate
visiting doctor for religion purposes, or if they are embarrassed when people give them bad looks
due to any race, religion and any other reason. Here all patient is welcome. As there is a need in
healthcare efficiencies and goal of Dr Thom is to improve patient experiences, in U.K.
government is all concerned about patient centre care, and one of the major problems in patient
experience is waiting time for appointments and Dr Thom Will address this issue.
Recognising the Opportunity: as its mention in task 1 this is a market full innovation
and there is a need in market for this type of innovation according to the Muslim community
most female is been discriminated either for language or religion purposes, where healthcare
need to address this. And this areas an entrepreneur I would like to access this community and
introduces them to Dr Thom so that they can access healthcare that is accessible to them. There
are numbers of ways I can do this is by applying 5 characteristics of the innovation from task 1,
in term of persuading them by using 5 stages of innovation to persuade them to use Dr Thom
app.
Finding the resources: As entrepreneur it would require human, financial and physical
resources to build this app. it can be funded my several resources available of governments
websites which can offer the funds. Governments might not fund all this, but there are other
companies or organizations which help entrepreneur.
Developing the venture: there are many organizations who is willing to help a new
entrepreneur on planning their business, entrepreneurs only have ideas but to plan it its need
recourses. There are people who help an entrepreneur on finding fund for business,
accommodation, developing an app. Dr Thom app would require builds many content within the
app which could means not just one or two recourses would be enough. Dr Thom Would require
marketing plan to produces’ the innovation in the Muslim community to persuade them to use
this service as a way of healthcare improvement (Lockett, El Enany, Currie, Oborn, Barrett,
Racko & Waring, 2014).
Creating the value: Then it need to create values on how to get to the market and to
make it run successful. Every year do a survey and ask patient to fill in feedback from where app
can make changes, it also includes reviewing to see what more changes can be added especially
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on Microsoft Windows upgrades every year, so Dr Thom would also need upgrade
(England.nhs.uk. (2017).
5 stages of the diffusion process
 Knowledge: A healthcare entrepreneur requires knowledge in the information
technology, because this is an invention based online. As new entrepreneur Lack of
knowledge in information technology can be difficult, for example writing out the
business plan, creating app, accommodation, business training and full population
demography, these are the area which need to be figured out are there any recourses and
other seminar available in the market to avail new entrepreneur.(in task 3 there are list of
recourses)
 Persuasion: As innovator main interested points would be, launch an app, speed and
accuracy of consultation and when uploading picture. App should be able to work in all
type of serves like windows, iOS or android (Lages, Marques, Ferreira & Ferreira, 2017).
 Decision: Advantages are: time consuming, no face to face consultation, easy to upload
picture, no discrimination. Disadvantages: Server can be hacked, elder might not like
online services, server can crush and that can make system go down.
 Implementation: Implementation is the stage where consumer put the innovation into
use; hence this will be the stage wherein patients will start making use of the app on
higher extent. At this stage, behavioral change is required to be analyzed so as to enhance
the value of innovation.
 Confirmation: At this stage, the entrepreneur will be able to decide if consumers are
satisfied and happy with the use of such innovation. The stage is highly associated with
communication sources wherein consumers evaluate their purchase experiences. Since,
Dr Thom provides numerous facilities to the patients; therefore this will attract more
number of patients towards the innovation (Laage-Hellman & McKelvey, 2014).
TASK 3
Government policy is a course of action that is determined by the government or political
party which influences business decisions and actions. Organizational affairs are also managed
by the rule of law; thus it impacts the business aspects on greater extent. At the time of
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facilitating innovation in the business, it is vital for the entity to acquire permission and authority
from the ruling bodies. Since, Dr Thom is an online app where patients can access their health
information (Joiner & Lusch, 2016). This is a sort of innovation in health care sector wherein
governmental rules and regulation can influence the overall practices in the sector. In order to get
funding from UK government, it is essential for the business and research organizations to
compete for government- backed funding which helps in managing business practices in
effective way.
Government of UK requires accessing research or developing process through which
product and service innovation can be rated. Government also tests innovation ideas; therefore it
is essential for the business to enhance the practices of the organization. Moreover, health care
organization also needs to have collaboration with other organizations so that health care
dimensions can be encouraged accordingly. In order to acquire funds from the government
bodies, organization needs to focus more on Health Foundation (Clifford, 2016). This is an
independent charity that works to enhance the health standards through enhancing care facilities
for people in UK. Dr Thom is an online app; hence it requires investment in the form of online
service management; therefore health care entities should approach such sources accordingly.
To promote the website in UK market; it is essential for the health care entities to get
support in terms of resource management from different governmental agencies. According to
government policy, it is vital for health care organizations to focus more strategic aspects.
Furthermore, assistance can also be acquired from Medipex which is a healthcare innovation hub
for NHS organizations and which operates in different regions of the world. It is connected with
NHS so as to share knowledge of NHS and this is also useful in commercializing the process of
innovation cycle. Hence, the organization focuses on tailoring the needs of clients with service
dimension. It also works with different partners to enhance the provision of partnership in
developing health care practices. NHS has several charitable trusts that work for the purpose of
encouraging the value of innovation in health care sector.
While facilitating innovation, entrepreneur needs support from different sources which
can also aid in developing networking with different entities. Cultural capital requires support in
the form of cultural values, norms and facilities and this helps the entities to enhance knowledge
level about the innovation. Moreover, with the help of cultural capital, facilities can be arranged
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for the patients in Dr Thom app (Adams, 2015). It also increases skills for the entrepreneur in
managing organizational activities in suitable manner. Another important dimension is strategic
capital which states that value of Dr Thom app will be increased if health care entities have
strategic partners in managing innovative services. This requires generation of new ideas and
opportunities through which strategic processes can be managed. The idea needs to be
strategically concerned so that it can contribute in organizational development.
Social capital is also important since it helps in getting funding assistance from different
entities which can further support in increasing funding facilities. In terms of developing social
capital, it is crucial for the subsequent entity to develop contacts with clients, suppliers, experts,
support agencies and colleagues (Joiner & Lusch, 2016). This is also essential in developing
social network contacts so that business can get more value in terms of promoting value of Dr
Thom app. At the time of developing better relationships with other people; it is crucial for
health care entities to focus on being more social. More people will know about this innovation;
hence this will help in getting adequate support from the audience and other people. Therefore,
the entrepreneur needs to get from diverse sources to deliver Dr Thom to UK market place.
Economic capital is yet another dimension that helps the entrepreneurs to develop
economic aspects of the business. At the same time, while enhancing the value of innovation, it
is vital for the entrepreneur to make arrangement of different financial resources so that all the
services can be effectively given to the patients (Sotarauta & Mustikkamäki, 2015). Soft loans
and venture capital can be one of the resources that can be used to bridge the development facets
in the process of innovation. Most importantly, entrepreneurs utilize their own capital for the
purpose of amending the value of innovation and this can also promote the services to wider
extent. The services are customer oriented; therefore it is crucial for the entrepreneur to get
support from government entities. All the policies and legal laws developed by the government
of UK can be used in terms of facilitating the innovation.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the entire research work, it can be said that the app will be highly suitable
for Muslim community because people are more concerned about inappropriate disclosure of
their health information. The app will be useful for Muslim community in range of areas; hence
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people will support the services on higher extent. Moreover, it is also identified that innovation
needs to be aligned with governmental policies and strategies to survive in the market place. This
can also maximize the use of the app in different communities in all across the world.
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