The fourth mission of hospitals and the role of researchers as innovation drivers in the public healthcare sector (original) (raw)

Scientific research can be an instrument for innovation. This article explores the role of researchers as innovation drivers in the public healthcare sector. Triple Helix model is proposed for the analysis of the role of public hospitals in knowledge generation and innovation processes. We discuss the role of public hospitals in innovation and in economic and social development, and identify this role as a ‘fourth mission’ of hospitals in addition to their widely recognized threefold function of healthcare provision, education and research. We discuss the evolution of hospital administration from healthcare towards the ‘entrepreneurial hospital’ model. More specifically, we investigate the extent to which the incorporation of full-time researchers can help to foster innovation at research and healthcare centres affiliated with the Spanish National Health System. Data were obtained through a survey of researchers, research group leaders and heads of departments and centres where these researchers worked, as well as through content analysis of researchers’ annual reports. Their incorporation mainly favoured the extension of foreign innovation through the incorporation of new techniques and technologies in research groups.