Breaking Boundaries: Decoding the Drivers and Deterrents of Doctor-led Innovation
Miriam Wiersma The University Of Sydney, Sydney Health Ethics Sydney/Camperdown2, Macquarie Park NSW 1The University Of Sydney, Sydney Health Ethics, Sydney/Camperdown, NSW, Australia2Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, Country
Abstract
“Clinical innovation” is the development and use of novel interventions that differ from standard practice, and that have not been shown to be safe or effective according to the standards of evidence-based medicine. While clinical innovation has the potential to transform patient care and drive medical progress, it is not without risk.
Research into clinical innovation has provided important insights into conceptual and ethical issues, but a comparative analysis of diverse medical specialties is lacking.
Here we present the initial findings from an empirical bioethics project investigating how doctors from a range of medical specialties, including surgery, haematology and reproductive medicine, define clinical innovation, their perspectives on what drives and deters them from innovating in practice and how they believe oversight mechanisms should function.
Our results reveal that while doctors from different specialties define clinical innovation in different ways, they identify similar key features of the practice. Furthermore, they grapple with the same barriers (e.g. resistance to change from within the medical community), are driven to innovate by similar factors (e.g. improving patient care) and report being frustrated by inconsistent oversight mechanisms. These findings suggest that there is value in moving beyond the traditional “exceptionalist” approach to the oversight of clinical innovation towards a more harmonised approach that has broader applicability across medicine.
Presenters: Miriam Wiersma, Ian Kerridge, Wendy Lipworth
Biography
Miriam Wiersma is a PhD Candidate at Sydney Health Ethics. She has undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in psychology as well as a Master of Public Health. Her areas of interest include the ethics of clinical practice innovation—doctors’ use of novel and emerging treatments and conflicts of interest in healthcare.