When desirability and feasibility go hand in hand: innovators’ perspectives on what is and is not responsible innovation in health

Abstract

While the conceptual foundations of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) were consolidated in the past decades, the practice of RRI remains poorly understood. The goal of our study was to gather the practical insights of professionals who design, develop and commercialize health innovations. We invited Canadian engineers, industrial designers, clinicians and entrepreneurs (n = 31) to visit a website describing nine innovations that possessed attributes of the Responsible Innovation in Health framework and to explain whether these examples illustrated important attributes of responsibility or not. Our qualitative analyses clarify how these innovators pondered whether: (1) stakeholder involvement is responsible; (2) businesses can behave responsibly; (3) innovations should adapt to health systems; and (4) the environment matters in health innovation. This study shows that innovators generally agree on the desirability of several responsibility principles, but identify feasibility issues that call for attention if RRI is to be meaningfully implemented in the health field.