Employee-driven Digital Innovation in Healthcare – A Scoping Review

The healthcare sector faces increasing pressure to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance quality of care. In achieving these goals digital innovations are crucial, yet healthcare organizations struggle to fully benefit from them. Traditional innovation processes often fail to tap into frontline workers' knowledge and expertise. This study explores employee-driven digital innovation (EDDI) in healthcare, highlighting its potential for healthcare organizations to leverage frontline workers' valuable insights to initiate and successfully implement digital innovations. With our literature review, we provide an overview of current instances of EDDI in healthcare and related innovation outcomes. We offer insights into extant research foci, bridging related literature streams, and addressing a fragmented knowledge base. For healthcare practitioners we offer nine enablers of how to initiate digital innovations with the help of ordinary healthcare employees. Our discussion of the literature emphasizes the benefits of involving employees in digital innovations and offers directions for future research.