Real Time Location Systems: Disruptive Innovation?

In 2013, Noel project managed the installation of a Real Time Location System (RTLS) in Cork University Hospital to investigate the merits of the technology in supporting the Clinical Engineering Department’s role as Equipment Managers. In his presentation today Noel give an overview of RTLS technologies and give examples of how CUH is now utilising the technology.

A ‘disruptive innovation’ is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network displacing an earlier technology. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in a new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market. In recent times a lot of focus has been placed on the theory and its application in the healthcare setting. In his presentation today, Noel will review the concept behind the theory, give examples from the healthcare sector and investigate if RTLS meets the criteria to merit the technology being categorised as a ‘disruptive innovation’.