Something Old, Something New: Measuring the Real Labour Cost of Healthcare Innovation

Healthcare systems worldwide face the challenge of introducing new technologies without fully understanding their impact on staff. Current Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methods, which guide adoption decisions, rely almost entirely on simple time-based measurements—such as real-time recording or retrospective task estimation.

This approach, however, has several flaws. As the National Healthcare Institute (ZiN) in the Netherlands recently emphasised, implementation decisions must explicitly weigh each technology’s labour impact. The existing ‘time-only’ focus misses the broader picture: the complexity of tasks, their perceived value to caregivers, and crucially, their effect on sustainable employability.

In many cases new technologies counterintuitively increase workload or stress, worsening labour shortages across the sector.

Recognising these limitations, CAPHRI researchers have launched an initiative to fill this crucial methodological gap. The project aims to develop a comprehensive, versatile tool that redefines how labour input is measured. 

This outcome metric will capture three key dimensions for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners: Time Investments, Task Substitution (who performs which tasks, including shifts between professionals or technology), and Work Satisfaction/ Appreciation (how innovations influence caregiver well-being and perceived quality of work). 

By integrating perspectives from work and organisational psychology, nursing sciences, health economics, and public health, the initiative significantly advances HTA methodology. The colla-boration between CAPHRI’s research lines Creating Value-Based Health Care (VHC) and Health Inequity and Social Participation (HISP) highlights the essential need for a holistic, multidisciplinary view of sustainable employability in healthcare.

The project embodies CAPHRI’s commitment to the Quadruple Aim: improving patient experience, population health, cost-effectiveness, and—critically—the work-life of healthcare providers. Its societal goal is clear: promoting sustainable employability amid increasing labour shortages to safeguard high-quality patient care. 

The project will deliver a validated tool to measure labour input in healthcare innovations, including an estimation module. Together with inputs to ZonMw and ZiN policy reports, findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and major international conferences on HTA, public health, and occupational psychology.

Beyond scientific dissemination, the project’s societal outreach will focus on practice and policy application. It foresees a practical instrument for policymakers and administrators, training sessions and masterclasses for frontline professionals (such as rheumatology nurses and home care workers), and integration into living labs and centers like AWH-Z, Living Lab Health & Labour, and MaastrichtHETA. By actively engaging with national and international partners, the project aims to influence policy and practical discussions on sustainable employability while attracting the public’s attention to this urgent challenge.