Healthcare professionals also view innovation less positively than managers do. They often lack the knowledge and skills to contribute actively to healthcare renewal.

These are the findings of the first edition of the Innovation Monitor for Healthcare. The monitor was carried out by Amsterdam UMC, the University of Amsterdam and SEO Economic Research, on behalf of the Amsterdam Research Center for Health Economics and Management (ARCHEM, Dutch-language website). The report will be presented on Thursday 3 September.

The Innovation Monitor for Healthcare is based on the Dutch Innovation Monitor. It assesses the innovation capacity of Dutch healthcare organisations using 5 innovation levers: self-organisation, transformational leadership, human capital, social capital and digital transformation.

The figure shows the average innovation levers at organisational level, measured on a scale from 1 to 7. The first 4 constructs are social levers of innovation. Digital transformation is the technological lever. Source: Innovation Monitor for Healthcare 2026.

Key findings

1. Social levers of innovation, including self-organisation, leadership, human and social capital, are more developed than the technological lever of digital transformation.
2. Improving existing care is more common than fundamental renewal.
3. Healthcare professionals view both the conditions for innovation and its outcomes less positively than managers and support staff.
4. Healthcare organisations perform similarly to businesses on innovation outcomes. However, they lag behind in AI maturity, particularly in data and technology.
5. Collaboration on healthcare innovation mainly takes place with partners within the same domain. There is less collaboration with health insurers, long-term care offices and government bodies.
6. Healthcare professionals see innovation as part of their role. However, they often lack the additional knowledge and skills needed to contribute actively to healthcare renewal.
7. Accelerating healthcare renewal requires a coherent innovation infrastructure and the ability to manage tensions, such as the tension between delivering care and renewing care.
8. In healthcare, AI is more often used to support work than to replace human tasks.

More than ICT is needed

Henk Volberda, Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation in the Strategy and International Business section at Amsterdam Business School, was surprised by the findings: ‘The picture that emerges is that healthcare organisations are investing in ICT, but the organisation-wide use of digital technologies is still insufficiently developed. Technology only leads to renewal when organisations also adapt work processes, involve professionals and make clear how the technology improves care or makes it easier to deliver.’

A clear call to action

Healthcare focuses on incremental innovation, with a strong emphasis on efficiency, predictability and safety. However, there also needs to be room for radical innovation, including the space to experiment and deal with uncertainty. Approaches based on ‘fail and learn’, which can help explore a new normal, are still used only to a limited extent.

‘There is a great deal of energy and willingness to innovate, but the conditions for doing so, including time, space, influence and targeted training, are still insufficient’, says Annamarike Seller-Boersma, co-director of ARCHEM. ‘Healthcare professionals see innovation as part of their role, but often lack the skills to get started. This is a clear call to administrators, government bodies and health insurers to create that space.’

Opportunities for renewal

When innovating, healthcare organisations mainly work with other providers within their own domain. Patients, clients and suppliers are also involved relatively often. Collaboration with health insurers, long-term care offices and government bodies remains more limited. Yet further opportunities for joint renewal lie precisely across sectoral and organisational boundaries.

‘Innovation in healthcare is not something an organisation can do on the side’, says Jeroen de Mast, the other co-director of ARCHEM. ‘It requires a coherent innovation infrastructure in which all the pieces of the puzzle, from continuous improvement to digitalisation and AI, fit together. It also requires collaboration beyond the boundaries of one’s own domain. Health insurers, long-term care offices and government bodies are essential to creating the conditions for renewal. They cannot remain on the sidelines.’

Recognising conflicting demands

Innovation within healthcare organisations is complicated by inherent tensions, particularly between the daily delivery of care and the time and capacity needed for renewal. As a result, both managers and healthcare professionals face conflicting demands. The researchers argue that this tension must be explicitly recognised if healthcare is to remain fit for the future. Only then can separate initiatives grow into a coherent innovation practice.

Seller-Boersma says: ‘The challenge is clear: an ageing population, staff shortages and rising costs do not call for more of the same, but for a different way of working.’

About the Innovation Monitor for Healthcare

The Innovation Monitor for Healthcare is a new annual survey of the innovation capacity of Dutch healthcare organisations. It focuses on non-medical renewal in the organisation and delivery of care, which is needed to keep healthcare affordable and sufficiently staffed.

A total of 421 respondents from 9 healthcare organisations took part in this first edition in 2026. In addition, 23 key informants were interviewed.

The report will be presented at SPUI25 (NL) on Thursday 3 September.