Innovation in medical imaging technology: Toward a systemic service perspective

In the interest of patients in general, most physicians in medical organizations use novel technology from commercial firms to support innovative medicine that preserves health and saves lives. Prior studies on technology development have described the role of lead users who represent a potentially important source of novel innovations due to their unique knowledge base accumulated through their daily practice. By expanding this concept to service innovation in healthcare, our proposed model identifies a systemic view of innovation defined as a collective, non-deterministic, and path-dependent function of innovation in medical technology as well as the adoption and diffusion of these clinical innovations within a community of practice. We describe this function as a service co-creation function. Our empirical case studies on medical imaging devices support our model and, in turn, bring some insight on innovation management for medical physicians and commercial firms.