title: Innovating across disciplines: report on a national workshop of stakeholders in Australia.
abstract: The most effective innovations in healthcare require the input of multidisciplinary teams working from white board to bedside. Innovations must ultimately deliver tangible results in the real world. The skills required at each stage of the development from drawing board to bench top  and from the lab to the clinic may be entirely unrelated. The key results at each stage also vary depending on perspective; they may be acclaim and awards, sales and profits or improved clinical parameters. As teams are enlisted on a specific challenge they each focus primarily on their own  key performance indicators. In this paper we report the deliberations at a workshop involving a variety of disciplines working in healthcare. The participants emphasised the need for clear agreement on three aspects: the outputs of the project including the financial and intellectual property  rights; the risks, costs and benefits; and the timelines for completion. A lead organisation must broker and maintain relationships ideally facilitated by an experienced project manager. The greatest challenges were highlighted as: the return on investment for commercial partners; the timelines  for academic outputs; and the potential for disruption of clinical practice routines.
authors.affiliation: Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia. M.Jiwa@curtin.edu.au
authors.forename: Moyez
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiwa
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McManus
authors.forename: Oksana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Burford
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rieck
authors.forename: Cedric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dumas
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012017:Referral and Consultation