Innovations in Health Care is the fourth title in an ongoing series dating from 1998. The contents and focus of each of the previous books have been drawn from the best of the papers presented at the international conferences on Organizational Behaviour in Health Care. To date both the conferences and the book series represent a unique compilation of what is known about organizational behaviour in health care. As such, the series has and will increasingly be seen as a critically important repository of the literature and best practice in the field.

This book represents some additional breakthroughs. The fourth conference was the first of the series to be held outside of the United Kingdom. Bringing the conference to a North American venue has put a truly international stamp on the work, widening the draw of US and Canadian academics and practitioners who contributed, but also retaining the strong core of UK and European contributors.

The book targets a subject that is key to every academic and organizational effort to improve health care: understanding how to identify, sustain and diffuse innovations that are working - providing some credible and valuable examples of what can be and has been accomplished through organizational change. Perhaps most usefully, some selections within the book critically examine where our current theories and practices are falling short and why there are problems that remain unsolved.

About the Author

ANN L. CASEBEER is Associate Director of the Centre for Health and Policy Studies, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, both at the University of Calgary, Canada. She is also Faculty Director for SEARCH Canada, a public service organization focused on supporting the use and conduct of applied health research in practice settings.

ALEXANDRA HARRISON is a Health Care Professional and Manager, with an interest in teaching and research. She is a Director in a large health region in Alberta, Canada and has an adjunct appointment at the University of Calgary, Canada, where she was previously Director of Postgraduate Medical Education at that University.

ANNABELLE L. MARK M.Sc, FHM, FRSM, is Professor of Healthcare Organization at Middlesex University Business School, UK. She is Director of the Pilot NHS Human Resource Management Training Scheme for the UK, and founding academic of the Organizational Behaviour in Health Care Conference. She is also the elected Chair of SHOC, the learned Society for Studies in Organising for Health Care.