ODIN: Bottom Up Innovation in Your Care Organisation

What is the ODIN project?

Our ODIN Project was a transformative initiative that aimed to revolutionise healthcare innovation through the empowerment of our frontline healthcare workers; we wanted our nurses and other frontline healthcare providers to take ownership of their ideas and drive meaningful change within their organisations. This project emerged from the recognition that nurses, as the experts on the front lines of patient care, are uniquely positioned to identify challenges and develop practical solutions that enhance both their work environments and patient outcomes. We sought to challenge the conventional top-down approaches to innovation that frequently disregard the invaluable insights of those who work directly with patients and chose to embrace a bottom-up strategy. 

The ODIN action plan consists of five phases:

1. Seeding:

• Goal: Align all stakeholders and recruit essential participants for the project.
• Activities: Individual discussions are held with managers and leaders. These exchanges help identify key issues and select the most suitable participants to actively contribute to the initiative.

2. Deep Dive:

• Goal: Transform professionals' frustrations into opportunities for innovation.
• Activities: Transform professionals' frustrations into opportunities for innovation.

3. Get It Done:

• Goal: Develop initial prototypes and finalize a design brief.
• Activities: Hackathons and workshops are organized to design, refine, and test prototypes. This transforms ideas into tangible solutions ready for implementation.

4. Make It Sustainable:

• Goal: Scale up cases and implement quick wins.
• Activities: Pitch sessions, coaching, and drafting next steps for both short- and long-term projects.

5. Spread the Word:

• Goal: Share results, both internally and externally.
• Activities: Media, including social networks, and official communication channels are used to broadly disseminate the project's learnings and successes.

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The link between ODIN and the 8 CTPs

Our mission is clear: to change the culture of healthcare innovation and encourage future bottom-up approaches to the development of healthcare technology. The ODIN Project lasted one year, with its official launch in January 2023. We invited all nurses and healthcare employees across our organization to participate in the project—over 1,200 staff members spread across eight regions. This inclusive approach was essential to ensuring diverse perspectives were represented in the innovation process, emphasizing people-centeredness by prioritizing the needs of both staff and patients at every stage (CTP 1, CTP 2). However, we required that only those actively engaged in patient care—nurses and other frontline staff—could take part. This ensured that the voices of those closest to patient care were prioritized (CTP 1). Of the staff members, 12 enthusiastic participants—intrinsically motivated to improve the healthcare system—were selected as ambassadors for the project. Four employees from De Lovie vzw, our project partners, worked with our Wit-Gele-Kruis participants to complete the project.

As part of our anti-exclusion criteria, to facilitate participation, we communicated that each employee would receive 50 hours per year dedicated to the project, which ensured that no one would have to work overtime to be involved (CTP 6). This time was built into their working hours and enabled equitable participation for all staff members, including logistics and administrative support, fostering a comprehensive and accessible environment for collaboration. The iterative approach used throughout ensured the reliability and safety of the developed solutions while maintaining alignment with user needs (CTP 4).

We achieved our mission through the implementation of four key steps. In the first session, we facilitated brainstorming activities between all invited participants to generate ideas and post them on Padlet. In subsequent sessions, we conducted a deep dive analysis on four selected cases with the 12 participants. We partnered with the industrial design centre at the Howest University of Applied Sciences in West Flanders, which provided 10 sessions of training in design thinking methodology, each lasting 4 hours (CTP 2). This training equipped our 12 participants with the skills to assess, analyse, and collaboratively address the challenges they encounter in their daily work. Through this process, the solutions were tailored to the end-users, ensuring ease of use and practicality in everyday healthcare settings. Our overarching goal was to make informed and constructive solutions instead of hastily jumping to conclusions.

In the final phase, the participants collaboratively prepared video pitches and storyboards to present the problems they wanted to address, moving away from the traditional model of individually presenting issues to managers. Finally, the four proposed solutions were entrusted to experts who could effectively transform these ideas into practical, real-world applications (CTP 4). Our participants focused on the following cases:

In Case 1, the complicated handling and distribution of medication at patients' homes prompted participants to propose the development of a medication storage box designed to simplify the process. This addressed accessibility concerns by ensuring the solution was practical and easily deployable in diverse healthcare settings. A collaboration was then established with the University of Antwerp, where a master's student dedicated one year to working on the design.

In Case 2, the risk of fatal incidents arising from mixing two different types of insulin—rapid and slow—led participants to suggest creating a magnetic holder that clearly distinguishes between the two types, thus minimizing the risk of errors. In response, 20 prototypes based on the participants’ designs were developed and are currently undergoing testing with patients. If successful, these prototypes will be submitted to the Belgian Diabetes Association for further consideration.

Case 3 highlighted the impracticality of current medical bags for nurses' needs. Participants proposed designing a medical bag that opens easily, allowing clear visibility of all materials. To achieve this, another collaboration with the University of Antwerp was initiated, where a student is working on both a medical bike bag and a backpack.

Lastly, in Case 4, the issue of nurses not arriving on time, which causes stress for both patients and staff, prompted participants to develop a tracking system aimed at informing patients of their estimated wait time for a nurse's arrival.

Each of these solutions reflects the collaborative spirit of the ODIN Project, focusing on real issues faced by healthcare workers, fostering practical, user-centered innovations (CTP 1). The project also adhered to privacy requirements, which are essential for a secure care environment, ensuring solutions were designed with safety and data protection in mind.

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Challenges

We focused on raising participants' awareness of the 8 principles throughout the project, but this remained our main challenge. Translating these principles into concrete applications was not always straightforward. While they provided valuable guidance, many of the solutions we developed were low-tech, which made some principles feel more abstract to the nursing staff. Despite these challenges, we made a constant effort to integrate core elements such as collaboration, safety, and co-creation. These values allowed us to keep our project aligned with the spirit of the 8 principles.