This mirrors the wider moves towards what Von Hippel calls ‘the democratization of
innovation’ and implies much higher levels of user-engagement in design and development
of customized solutions matched to local and specific needs rather than a generic ‘one size
fits all’ approach. At the same time such alternatives need to reflect the economic challenges
of delivering high quality care in such specific configurations – there is a risk that
innovations will revert to the traditional cost/quality trade-offs common to manufacturing
operations management during the last century