Monday, April 29: Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) today announced a new Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovation, Level NFQ 9 - the first focused on the development of ‘Healthcare Innovation Ambassadors’ in Ireland. Uniquely, this programme develops the person to be innovative in their approach and thought processes within healthcare, rather than current offers where the focus is on the innovation itself. The result being the creation of Ambassadors who will lead development and improvements in Irish healthcare overall. Places on the course are mixed, both industry and HSE, with one third offered at a reduced rate for the HSE applicants.

HIHI is a joint government initiative of both the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) and the Department of Health (DoH), funded through Enterprise Ireland and supported by HSE. Operationally, it is a partnership of clinical and academic centres. Of the four HIHI academic partners, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has specific responsibility for the delivery of educational products that will stimulate a culture of innovation within the HSE and Irish healthcare.

Prof John Higgins, HIHI Lead Principal Investigator, UCC Professor and Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said:

“I urge all those working in healthcare to consider this course. We want to engage right across the hospital structures and create a healthcare culture receptive to innovation, by teaching a new way of thinking to find creative solutions to health challenges.

“Ultimately, HIHI wants to facilitate an eco-system whereby those on the frontline become drivers of innovation in Irish healthcare. That is why one third of the places on the course are reserved for HSE staff at a reduced rate.”

Prof Seamas Donnelly, Course Director, Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, and HIHI Principal Investigator said:

“HIHI and its partners, not least among them the HSE, want to look at solutions for the long-term, not just to get by in the short-term. Through education, HIHI seeks to achieve a lasting behaviour and culture shift that ensures those in Irish healthcare are the lead architects of positive change and accelerate our system to one with innovation at its core.

“If we can’t change how we work in the system, the system simply won’t change.”

A one-year course delivered through Trinity College Dublin, the Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovation, comprises eight modules. There are six taught foundation modules and two project modules, including methodology workshops and a practical field project. The programme will offer fundamental grounding in key subjects: design thinking and embedding a culture of innovation; process innovation; lean thinking; social innovation and health economics; innovation and leadership. The practical project will help students to identify and plan an innovative solution applicable to their workplace, with a view to implementation.

This Postgraduate Diploma will be a catalyst in transforming the innovation mind-set within the Irish healthcare landscape. Graduates are expected to lead the adoption and embedding of innovation in the Irish health system. Closing date of June 30 for applicants.  Full course detail here.