Tommaso Roccabianca: Participatory Evaluation and Implementation Effectiveness: A Process-Based Framework for Healthcare Innovation (HEPII Seminars
8 Oct
2:00 PM
Healthcare organizations increasingly invest in innovative technologies to improve quality, outcomes, and efficiency. Yet, the successful adoption of complex innovations depends not only on their technical performance but also on how they are integrated into organizational processes. Robot-Assisted Surgery provides an important example of this challenge, as implementation success is strongly influenced by organizational factors. This research examines how healthcare professionals’ involvement in technology evaluation influences the effective implementation of innovations. Building on organizational theory, Health Technology Assessment, and the implementation climate literature developed by Klein and Sorra in 1996 and Helfrich et al in 2007, the study argues that participation in assessment and decision-making fosters acceptance, legitimacy, and alignment between clinical and managerial priorities. Innovation adoption is therefore conceptualized as an organizational process in which professional involvement acts as a key governance mechanism.
The empirical setting is the IRCCS Sant’Orsola University Hospital of Bologna, where, in 2026, a participatory evaluation process was implemented to assess three robotic surgical platforms. Surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and operating room nurses were the protagonists in defining the evaluation criteria and designing the comparative testing protocols, which were implemented through both simulation-based exercises and clinical activities. The project led to the development of profession-specific questionnaires for the different stakeholder groups, resulting in the collection of 357 evaluations and the treatment of 39 patients over a 42-days period. The expected outcome is a healthcare-specific framework explaining how stakeholder involvement contributes to implementation effectiveness. The research highlights factors such as multidisciplinary coordination, shared responsibility, feedback integration, and alignment between managerial and clinical priorities, arguing that the value of innovation depends not only on technology itself but also on the organizational processes through which it is adopted and integrated into practice.
Tommaso Roccabianca is a PhD Candidate in Public Governance, Management and Policy at the Department of Management, University of Bologna, and a collaborator at IRCCS Sant'Orsola University Hospital since 2024. His research focuses on the adoption and implementation of technological innovations in healthcare organizations, with particular attention to robotic surgery, operating room management, and the organizational changes associated with the introduction of new technologies.
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