At this stage, you are developing your innovation, and experimenting, prototyping and testing to make a business case for your idea.
Developing and testing is the experimentation phase where an idea is converted into a draft or prototype. Testing will help determine whether the idea can be further developed – or learnings taken from the work if it is ultimately abandoned. Many of the resources shared in the Invention section cover testing and prototyping.
‘Making the case’ is where further advanced testing is considered and the potential for the idea alongside any further research to develop an evidence base for the potential quality, efficiency or economic benefits. These findings can subsequently be incorporated into a business case for future funding or a trial or implementation.
Resources to support innovation:
- Step three of our creative problem solving toolkit explores how you can develop a business case to demonstrate how ideas can be turned into action and ‘value”.
- Our guide to Economic Evaluation looking at the key concepts around measuring costs and benefits can help as you put together a business case, and is part of our Evaluation Works online toolkit.
- The West of England Innovation Exchange is designed to help innovators understand what the NHS challenges are and connect innovators to the help they need. Get access to all our business services in one place, as well as local and national funding opportunities.
- Join our online learning: An introduction to Innovation in Healthcare. A free, four-week course developed with the University of Bath is available now to learn at your pace and understand the key steps involved in taking an innovation from idea to realisation. This course is designed for anyone looking to understand the process and challenges of innovation in healthcare. It will be of special interest to health practitioners, clinicians, health and social managers, and commissioners and innovators from the commercial sector. It will be especially valuable if you work in health and social care, as it will enable you to apply theories and approaches in your workplace.
- The Health Innovation Programme (HIP) is our healthcare innovation business development course, helping healthcare entrepreneurs test the validity of their business models and understand how to pitch their propositions to the NHS, amid a very complex NHS business landscape. Find out more about innovations that have benefitted from our HIP programme.
