Research: Healthcare innovation in Greater Manchester

Research summary

Dr Roman Kislov is a deputy theme lead for Implementation Science in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM).

ARC-GM is a large-scale partnership between universities, NHS providers and third-sector organisations. It is one of 15 networks across England, formed as part of a £135m investment by the NIHR, to produce research that responds to the needs of local populations and healthcare systems.

Within Greater Manchester, the academic health science network (ASHN) is part of Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), an umbrella organisation bringing together other local academic, innovation and patient safety-focused networks.

Previous research about the role and work of AHSN’s has covered the two-year forming period, and significant research gaps remain on the effects and operations as the networks develop.

It is still unknown how the implementation of successful innovations in pilot sites is scalable to other organisations within a region.

Exploring this within HInM, this project asks: How does a collaborative place-based network enable the scale-up of research-based innovation?

Using a mixed-method longitudinal case study approach, we are exploring HInM’s innovation pipeline as an overarching umbrella case. We are focussing on four innovation tracer projects that are at different stages along the pipeline.

Implementation science

Within health and social care, implementation science is the study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of evidence-based clinical treatments as well as organisational and management interventions.

It involves developing and evaluating strategies needed to effectively implement interventions in the real world.

Project objectives

• Explore how the network influences the scale-up of research-based innovations across a region.

• Investigate the link between the scale-up of innovation and the processes of learning that unfolds within the collaborative network.

• Compare the operation of these mechanisms and processes across different innovation cases, contexts, different stages of COVID-19 response and over time in general.

• Facilitate organisational learning about the scale-up of research-based innovations by working with HInM stakeholders, with particular attention to learnings taken from the COVID-19 response.

Research outputs

• Academic papers, reports and other research outputs will be linked from here when they are published.