Publications UK: Against the Odds: Successfully scaling innovation in the NHS

Innovation Unit and Health Foundation UK - Click here to read the report

Authors' abstract

"This report explores what it takes to scale innovation successfully in the NHS.

We look in depth at 10 innovations that have spread over the past 20 years. The case studies are rich in insight, and from them we have drawn a set of provocations (see From insights to practice) for the reader to consider how these insights build on, and challenge, existing wisdom on how to scale innovation in the NHS.

We begin by setting out what is known about the scale and spread of innovation in healthcare, and describe six common themes that have emerged in research and debate on this issue in the last decade. We then synthesise the insights from the case studies, linking and referencing them to the full case studies, and provide a set of considerations for thinking about how to scale healthcare innovations in the future. The full case studies follow this synthesis, and are highly recommended reading for understanding the nuance of what it takes to achieve impact at scale, “against the odds”