Learning From Failure in Digital Health With Dr Sarah Crossland

In this episode, I speak with Dr Sarah Crossland about the role of failure in digital health innovation. Sarah is a lecturer in medical engineering at the University of Hull and a practising clinician specialising in orthotics. We first met at a conference focused on human factors in digital innovation, where Sarah gave a memorable talk about failure and its importance in the innovation process.Discussing Sarah’s varied career path, starting with her undergraduate degree in physics, and how experiencing setbacks and changes in direction played a role in helping her find her current niche at the intersection of engineering and clinical care. Sharing her story of an academic project that was technically successful as a research tool but failed to have the intended clinical impact. She explains how the project underappreciated important aspects such as end-user needs, clinical workflow, and the complexities involved in translating research into practical tools for clinicians and patients.We explore common challenges in digital health innovation. We also discuss the importance of user research, early engagement with diverse stakeholder groups, and learning from critical friends, especially those outside one’s immediate discipline or speciality.Sarah reflects on lessons learned and how her approach to new projects has changed, placing greater emphasis on patient and clinician input from the outset and on robust methods for testing and simulating new ideas before rolling them out. We also touched on the cultural aspect of failure in healthcare and research, and the need for safe environments for testing, learning, and even failing.If you are interested in why so many digital technologies struggle to achieve impact, and how failure can be reframed as a source of learning, I hope you find this episode insightful.If you found this episode informative, don't forget to leave a review and share your thoughts. Thank you for tuning in!The Digital Ecology Podcast is part of the Talking HealthTech Podcast Network, your go-to audio destination for the latest in healthcare delivery, innovation, digital health, healthcare ICT, and commercialisation. Discover more at talkinghealthtech.com/podcast/network.

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