Innovation in healthcare systems

In recent decades, the literature on healthcare service innovation has flourished and become intertwined with the “medical humanities”. Innovation processes are closely linked within healthcare institutions to how managers make decisions in unpredictable, complex, and dynamic organizational contexts. Healthcare organizations must rely on complex interactions, and the need for innovation continues to grow with the growing demand for products and processes capable of treating typically incurable and critical diseases, improving the quality of care, and ensuring the efficiency of healthcare services. The Quadruple Helix (QH) model offers an integrated perspective that can place both the innovation process in the healthcare sector and the individual&s;s centrality and must be considered in studies about healthcare systems. In this chapter, we argue that the four areas on which the QH model focuses can support the development of health services, especially at local territorial levels, where citizens&s; needs are strongest. Therefore, in this study, we will examine how the dimensions of the QH model can contribute to improving the health system, applying the framework to data analyzed in the health context of a region of Southern Italy. The results are analyzed to provide the first implications on how an organizational model that favors innovation and service improvement can support the achievement of the so-called triple win in health systems and promote people&s;s well-being within modern health contexts, as conceptualized by the theoretical approaches of the “medical humanities”.