Report: New Methods for User-driven Innovation in the Health Care Sector

Hmmm, just came over this interesting report about new methods for user driven innovation in the health care sector - published September 2009. I'm not sure of how 'new' these methods are today, but the report provides a nice overview of the field.

"The report consists of an overview of innovation theory, hereunder user driven innovation directions, an analysis of the health care sector, the need for innovation and the specificities which have to be taken into consideration in innovation processes and a presentation of state of the art examples from the Nordic region and the USA. The Norwegian pilot projects in the NICe program are related to InnoMed, an
organization established and owned by the Norwegian Directorate of Health. This
organization aims to improve health care services through development of new
solutions that cover unmet market needs. InnoMed is working to become a centre of
expertise for user driven innovation, and in order to achieve so they are cooperating
with SINTEF Health Research. Together with SINTEF, InnoMed will evaluate
methodologies for various phases in the innovation process during a five-year project.

Three InnoMed projects were used as case studies in the NICe program on user driven
innovation: impaired hearing, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
dementia."

Download the report here