TCD’s Prof Paul Coughlan leads Module 4 in our Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovation, with guest lecturer, Pär Åhlström

The new year began with Module 4 for our Postgraduate Diploma students – Process Innovation, Lean Thinking and Social Innovation. It was led by Prof Paul Coughlan, Trinity College Dublin. Professor in Operations Management and Director of Accreditation & Quality Assurance at Trinity Business School. Professor Coughlan has developed his research and teaching in operations management and new product development.

A guest lecture was delivered by by Pär Åhlström, author of operations bible ‘This is Lean’. Pär is the Director of the Centre for Innovation and Operations Management, at Stockholm School of Economics, dedicated to interdisciplinary research projects at the knowledge frontier in operations management; innovation management; and information management.

Module 4 is designed to encourage the healthcare practitioner to see “quality” as the central context on which all healthcare services and products are built. Equally the module explored the strategic advantages of systems-based approaches to healthcare quality improvement, including lean thinking. The module focuses on understanding health system outcomes from the perspectives of individual patients to populations served and mechanisms for optimising the safety, effectiveness and value of the complex socio-technical systems through which healthcare is delivered.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovation is a level 9 full-time one year course. It comprises of eight taught modules:  six foundation modules and two project modules including methodology workshops and a practical field project. The programme offers a fundamental grounding in key subjects such as design thinking and embedding a culture of innovation, process innovation, lean thinking and social innovation, innovation & health economics, healthcare, innovation and leadership.

The course culminates next summer in a practical project, rather than the traditional thesis, comprising two phases. The Course Director  will help the participants to identify and plan, with a view to implementation, an innovative solution applicable to each participants workplace.

For more information on the 2020/2021 intake please contact:

Eimear Galvin, HIHI TCD Manager: galvinei@tcd.ie.