Digital transformation in healthcare. The challenges of translating knowledge in a primary research, educational and clinical centre

The global healthcare system is currently facing an increasing technological swift, also driven by the need to engage the patients and other stakeholders in developing healthcare products and services. Knowledge Translation (KT) is getting increasing attention both from scholars as well as managers and professionals, due to its crucial role in fostering innovation, when most actors share different backgrounds, competencies, and skills. Such features represent severe challenges to the sharing and transfer of knowledge. The various actors need effective KT enablers to share, transfer, and create new knowledge. This paper aims to investigate such dynamics through a qualitative case, analyzing how KT is managed at IHU Strasbourg, the Institute of Image-Guided Surgery, one primary research, clinical, and educational centre, together with the Research Institute Against Digestive Cancers (IRCAD), the surgical minimally-invasive training centre. At such Institutes, several digital technologies are implemented and adopted to foster innovation in new surgical tools and methodologies. Findings demonstrate that KT at IHU Strasbourg/IRCAD can be defined at four different levels, corresponding to the Institutes’ aims: education, innovation, technological transfer, and care. For each dimension, a galaxy of stakeholders, KT processes and flows, and instruments emerge. KT enablers vary, from the ones more linked to digital technologies and procedures to the ones that are more creative and based on the soft and interpersonal skills of the professionals involved. Results suggest a mix of different methods, and the search for always new techniques.