Bridging healthcare education and technology solution development through experiential innovation

Healthcare education is continually evolving to meet the global healthcare needs of society. Education is of critical importance to support healthcare workers professional development while also expanding the evidence-base for healthcare professional training. There are inherent links between healthcare professionals’ educational development and patient safety. In recent years, there has been considerable emphasis on the role of technology to enhance patient safety and to support healthcare professionals in practice. However there is growing concern regarding the mismatch in healthcare professionals technological skills and how technological innovators are informed of healthcare needs. Education plays a key role to bridge this gap. Collaborating in simulated clinical learning environments, e.g. university-simulated clinical skills laboratories, can provide a valuable resource to support students’ technical competencies as they graduate into a digital healthcare environment. It also provides a safe innovation environment for healthcare solution developers to experiment with implementing technology to improve healthcare practice and faculty development. We review the literature to examine state-of-the-art in healthcare education and healthcare innovation with a view to developing a framework to guide how we can begin to successfully bridge healthcare education and technology innovation.