New Publication: Closing the Gap Between Innovation and Adoption in Healthcare

Healthcare systems across Canada continue to invest heavily in digital innovation, but all too often, the results don’t match the promise. Our latest publication seeks to close that gap by building on a foundation of change management and adoption work previously developed by Amplify Care.

The article, titled “Amplifying Innovation in Healthcare: From Silos to Synergy” was authored by:

• Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia, Chief Executive Officer, Amplify Care
• Ted Alexander, Vice President, Partnerships and Clinical Innovation
• Lirije Hyseni, Executive Director, Excellence and Clinical Experience

Presented as part of “From Silos to Synergy: Building Bridges” at the Future of Health Leadership, Informatics and Policy Conference 2026, where Ted presented on the article, it appears in Volume 334 of Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, and offers a practical, experience-driven model for making healthcare innovation actually work in real-world settings. Key insights are summarized below.

Building on a Proven Foundation

This paper doesn’t start from scratch; it extends Amplify Care’s earlier model of integrated change management and knowledge translation, which focused on improving adoption of digital health tools.

That foundational work emphasized:

• Defining clinical and organizational value
• Aligning innovations with real clinical workflows
• Supporting active, planned adoption rather than passive rollout

This approach has already delivered strong results, including high levels of sustained adoption of eReferral systems across Canada.

The new paper builds on that success by asking: What happens after adoption? How do we sustain and continuously improve innovation?

The Core Problem: Why Innovation Still Falls Short

Even with better adoption strategies, many digital health initiatives continue to struggle because:

• Solutions don’t fully evolve with clinical needs
• Feedback from users isn’t effectively integrated
• Value remains difficult to demonstrate over time
• Stakeholders (clinicians, vendors, system leaders) operate in silos

The result? Missed opportunities to scale and sustain impact.

The Key Advancement: Closing the Feedback Loop

The major contribution of this paper is expanding the original model to include ongoing feedback loops between clinicians and technology vendors.

Here’s how that evolution works:

• Clinicians adopt and use the technology
• Real-world feedback is gathered during use
• Insights are translated into structured requirements
• Vendors incorporate these into product development cycles

This creates a system where:

• Products continuously improve based on real use
• Clinicians remain engaged and invested
• Adoption transitions into long-term, meaningful use

Co-Design: Strengthening Future Innovation

Another important extension is the emphasis on co-design for future projects. By leveraging experience from managing feedback loops, teams can better:

• Engage clinicians and patients early
• Define clearer requirements
• Align expectations across stakeholders

This results in innovations that are more practical, usable, and sustainable from the outset.

Addressing the “Value Problem”

One of the biggest challenges in healthcare innovation is proving value before full implementation.

This model helps overcome that by:

• Generating real-time evidence of value during rollout
• Supporting iterative learning and adaptation
• Informing better economic and investment decisions

Rather than relying on predictions alone, organizations can build the case for value as they go.

Challenges to Consider

Implementing this approach requires careful navigation:

• Building trust between clinicians, vendors, and system leaders
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities
• Managing procurement complexities and potential conflicts
• Keeping pace with rapid innovation cycles, especially in AI

Despite these challenges, the alternative (continuing with siloed, misaligned innovation) poses far greater risks.

The Bottom Line

This paper reinforces and extends Amplify Care’s core insight: successful healthcare innovation depends on aligning people, processes, and technology – not just deploying tools.

By building on its proven foundation and evolving toward more collaborative, feedback-driven approaches, Amplify Care’s model offers a roadmap to turn innovation into lasting change.