Credit: iStock.com/jabkitticha
We need a coordinated pathway that connects the identification of healthcare problems with the adoption of proven innovations and their implementation at scale
Over the past decade, Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) has reviewed almost 1,500 healthcare innovations and supported the evaluation of nearly 500 of them in Irish healthcare settings. Yet only 28 have been adopted and not one has scaled nationally.
That single statistic captures one of the greatest challenges facing Irish healthcare innovation. The problem is no longer a lack of ideas, technologies, or entrepreneurs. Nor is it a lack of evidence. The problem is what happens after an innovation has been shown to work.
Across healthcare systems worldwide, leaders are grappling with the same pressures: Growing demand, workforce shortages, constrained budgets, and rising expectations from patients. At the same time, there is an unprecedented range of innovations available to help address these challenges, from artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health solutions to remote monitoring, diagnostics, and new models of care.
The question is no longer whether solutions exist. They do.
The question is why so many proven solutions fail to move beyond the pilot stage and become part of routine healthcare delivery.
This is not uniquely an Irish problem. The World Health Organization has highlighted the need for health systems to move beyond successful pilots and create the conditions necessary to adopt, implement, and sustain innovation (January 2026). The encouraging news is that Ireland has already built much of the foundation required to do exactly that.
Lessons from the last 10 years
For almost 10 years, HIHI has operated at the intersection of healthcare and enterprise, connecting innovators with clinicians, patients, and healthcare organisations to test whether new solutions deliver value in real-world settings.
A technology may look impressive in a laboratory, in a research paper, or during an investor presentation, but healthcare is a far more demanding environment. New solutions must fit clinical workflows, improve outcomes, reduce pressure on staff, and deliver measurable value. If they cannot do that, they should not be implemented.
Equally, when an innovation does demonstrate value, there should be a clear pathway to adoption. Too often, that pathway does not exist.
Through our evaluations, we have seen first-hand how Irish companies are addressing real healthcare challenges.
At South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork, HIHI supported the evaluation of Triage Link, developed by Yellow Schedule, to improve GP-to-consultant referrals. The project reduced referral triage times from more than 25 days to fewer than three days. Importantly, the solution evolved through close collaboration between clinicians and the company, adapting to the realities of the Irish healthcare system rather than expecting the system to adapt to the technology.
In radiology, Irish company 4Waves demonstrated how innovation can help reduce unnecessary demand rather than simply increasing capacity. Research at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, reported an 8.2 per cent reduction in advanced imaging requests, a 61 per cent reduction in duplicate CT and MRI scans, and associated reductions in radiation exposure and carbon emissions (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13244-025-01987-7).
In cancer care, conversational AI developed by eHIVA enabled patients undergoing chemotherapy to complete assessments remotely before attending hospital. The result was a more efficient process for both patients and clinical teams.
Similarly, Brack Medical has demonstrated how technology can streamline community-based pathways while maintaining appropriate clinical governance, an increasingly important consideration as healthcare shifts towards integrated and community care.
A robust evaluation process must be willing to say no when evidence does not justify implementation. Furthermore, not every solution developed for the international market and are not relevant to our healthcare systems. But when evidence demonstrates value, the challenge is in what happens next – in Ireland today, that next step remains unclear.
Coordination
Ireland has invested heavily in research, entrepreneurship, commercialisation, and the life sciences sector. We have world-class researchers, a thriving medtech industry and an increasingly mature innovation ecosystem. Ireland is the second largest exporter of medical devices in Europe and Enterprise Ireland is recognised as the most active European venture investor over the last decade (Pitchbook.com).
What remains missing is a coordinated pathway that connects the identification of healthcare problems with the evaluation of potential solutions, the adoption of proven innovations, and large-scale implementation. Without that pathway, Ireland will continue to support innovative healthcare companies, but the impact will not be realised at home.
The consequences extend far beyond innovators. They are experienced every day by healthcare staff working under pressure, by patients waiting for services, and by health systems continuing to spend resources on problems that proven solutions could help address.
Healthcare leaders are right to ask difficult questions before adopting new technologies. Patient safety, governance, procurement, cybersecurity, and value for money all deserve careful scrutiny.
But once that scrutiny has occurred and value has been demonstrated, there must be a clear route to decision-making.
Opportunity
Ireland now has an opportunity to address this challenge.
The development of a new National Life Sciences Strategy has highlighted the increasing recognition that healthcare innovation and economic development are not separate agendas. A strong innovation ecosystem creates jobs and investment, but it can also generate solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing our own health service.
The publication of the HSE Health Innovation Framework is another important step. For the first time, Ireland has a national framework that seeks to support, govern, and enable innovation across health and social care.
The critical question, however, is implementation.
Frameworks only matter if they are adequately resourced, practically applied, agile, and connected to the realities of service delivery.
Furthermore, innovation cannot be viewed solely as a responsibility of the HSE. Success will require collaboration across the ecosystem that exists – government departments, agencies, enterprise supports, academic institutions, healthcare organisations, clinicians, patients, and industry.
Ireland has already invested in building expertise across all of these sectors. The challenge now is to bring them together around a shared goal.
We should also ensure that risk management does not become risk avoidance. Patient safety and accountability must never be compromised. However, risk should be actively managed rather than used as a default justification for maintaining the status quo. The focus should be on how innovation can be introduced safely and effectively, not whether change should happen at all.
Why the health regions matter
The emergence of regional health structures offers a significant opportunity.
National governance is essential. Standards, evidence requirements, assurance processes, and safeguards should be consistent across the country. Implementation, however, should not always be driven through a single national project.
Regional healthcare leaders are often best positioned to understand local service pressures, population needs, and operational realities. They are also well placed to identify where innovation could deliver the greatest impact.
For this approach to succeed, regions need dedicated innovation adoption and implementation funding matched to regional needs.
Purchasing technology is only one part of adoption. Successfully introducing innovation requires training, workflow redesign, integration with existing systems, clinical engagement, and ongoing measurement of outcomes. An innovation budget that only funds products is not an implementation budget.
The balance Ireland should seek is straightforward: National governance enabling regional action with a budget to support innovation implementation.
The next phase for HIHI
HIHI’s role has never been to promote innovation for its own sake. Our role is to help healthcare organisations identify solutions, generate independent evidence, and support informed decision-making.
Adoption and procurement decisions rightly belong within the health service. However, HIHI can continue to provide the connectivity, evidence, and practical insight needed to support those decisions and to help bridge the gap between innovation and implementation.
That gap remains the most important challenge we face.
Four practical priorities
If Ireland is serious about capturing greater value from healthcare innovation, four priorities stand out.
First, we need dedicated funding for the procurement and implementation of proven innovations, alongside existing research and enterprise funding.
Second, regional health structures should have the flexibility to direct that funding towards local priorities within a nationally governed framework.
Third, Ireland needs a clearly defined pathway from evaluation to adoption and scale, with transparent decision points and clear accountability.
Finally, innovation must be recognised as a shared national endeavour. Government, healthcare providers, clinicians, patients, academia, industry, and procurement teams all have a role to play.
After a decade of evaluating healthcare innovation, it is clear Ireland needs a better system for implementing innovations that work.
What we need now is investment in the step that follows evidence. This will require budget, buy-in, and vision. The processes must be quick, agile, and resourced – we cannot afford not to fund innovation in healthcare.
Health Innovation Hub Ireland is a Government-supported initiative, funded by Enterprise Ireland and the HSE.
For more information go to https://hih.ie/
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.