Healthcare organizations invest considerable expertise and effort in developing and testing new technologies. Yet even promising innovations can struggle to move beyond the pilot stage.

Why does this happen?

Over the years, I've worked on healthcare innovation projects from different sides of the table. I've worked with talented people who share a genuine ambition to improve healthcare through technology, research and data. But I've also seen how difficult it can be to turn a successful experiment into a solution that delivers lasting value. While the technology may have worked as intended, in healthcare, an interesting solution is not necessarily a useful one.

The real test of innovation is whether it improves patient care, makes healthcare professionals' work easier or helps organizations use their resources more effectively.

Why successful pilots don't always lead to successful implementation

When we discuss healthcare innovation, much of the attention goes to the technology itself. Is it technically feasible? Does it perform as expected? Can we demonstrate its potential?

These are important questions. But in my experience, obstacles that keep promising innovations from reaching everyday use often emerge after the technology has proven its potential. A solution must fit into clinical workflows and support the people who will use it. Organizations may need to redesign processes, establish new responsibilities and manage changes to everyday work.

Ownership is also a question. Who will take responsibility for developing the solution into a product, meeting the necessary requirements and supporting it over time? Who is prepared to make the investments and manage the risks involved?

Yet these questions can receive less attention than technical development during the early stages of innovation. For healthcare leaders, this raises an important consideration: Implementation cannot be treated as something to figure out after the pilot succeeds. It needs to be part of the innovation discussion from the beginning.

What the AI Head project taught me about innovation

My experience with the CleverHealth Network's AI Head Analysis project helped shape this perspective. Several years ago, I helped develop tools to annotate and validate the project's training data. This involved working with voxel-level bleeding areas identified in head CT scans.

At the time, I approached the project largely as a research-and-development challenge. We worked with complex technology and tried to solve a meaningful healthcare problem. Only later, after moving to the technology provider side, did I understand how much more is required once the technology starts working. Developing an AI-enabled medical device and bringing it to market involves far more than technical development. Product responsibilities, regulatory requirements, investment and implementation all become part of the challenge.

The experience reinforced an important lesson for me: The challenges of innovation change as a solution matures. The expertise and responsibilities needed to address them must evolve too.
A successful research project may demonstrate what is technically possible. Bringing that innovation into healthcare practice requires broader capabilities and a shared commitment to implementation.

Start with the healthcare challenge, not the technology

This is why I see considerable value in the CleverHealth Network approach. Too often, innovation begins with a promising technology and a search for healthcare organizations willing to test it.

CleverHealth Network offers a different starting point. The collaboration begins with an unresolved problem in everyday healthcare. Clinical experts, researchers, technology providers and commercial partners then come together to explore how to solve it.

This matters because the people who understand the clinical challenge help shape the solution from the outset. It also creates opportunities to consider practical implementation needs alongside research and development. For healthcare organizations, this approach can help keep innovation focused on the problems worth solving rather than the technologies available to test.

At CGI, we've built healthcare expertise and implementation experience through our work with a range of healthcare solutions. As a long-standing participant in CleverHealth Network, we want to build on that experience and contribute more actively to connecting research, technology and practical implementation.

Our ambition is to help promising ideas progress beyond technical demonstrations and become solutions that healthcare professionals can use in their daily work. That requires collaboration throughout the innovation process, including a willingness to address difficult questions about ownership, investment and long-term responsibilities.
Measure success by what changes in everyday healthcare

Research and development can produce promising concepts. Product development can turn those concepts into usable solutions. But the real value of innovation becomes visible only when those solutions make a meaningful difference in practice.

For healthcare leaders, I believe this means asking three questions early in the innovation process:

  • What problem are we solving? Start with a genuine need in patient care or healthcare delivery, rather than a technology looking for an application.
  • Who will take responsibility for implementation? Consider the ownership, investment and organizational changes needed to move beyond the pilot.
  • How will we measure the benefits? Define what improvement should look like for patients, healthcare professionals or the organization, and whether those benefits justify the costs.

These questions may sound straightforward, but answering them requires close collaboration between clinical, technical, research and commercial partners. Ultimately, someone's care, working day, or life should improve enough to justify the effort and investment. Otherwise, we may have developed interesting technology without creating meaningful value.

For me, the next opportunity in healthcare innovation lies here: Taking shared responsibility not only for developing promising solutions, but also for helping them reach the people who need them.