Engaging multisector stakeholders to identify priorities for global health innovation, change and research: an engagement methodology and application to prosthetics service delivery in Cambodia.

While innovation is known to catalyse solutions to global sustainable development challenges, lack of engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and development may influence the degree of success of implementation. This paper presents a complete and novel engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for working with multi-sector stakeholders. The methodology can be used to determine barriers and facilitators to clinical practice innovations or translational research, within a country-specific context. The approach has then been applied in the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector to provide a practice-based exemplar application of the framework. This approach seeks to ensure the suitability and sustainability of clinical practice and research programmes being implemented within a complex ecosystem. A theoretical basis, drawn from academic and business innovation sectors, has been consolidated and adapted for practical application to design, direct, and inform initiatives in low resource settings. The methods presented provide a way to both develop and articulate the mission, vision, and goals of any proposed change, and to effectively communicate these with stakeholders in a way that engages the personal and professional values that exist in their ecosystem. It provides a structured process through which meaningful conversations can happen, and a basis for relationship management with key stakeholders; intrinsic to enable a sustained legacy from research and development. The engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and throughout development can determine the success, or not, of any implementation and scale of innovation. This paper presents a conceptual stakeholder-led engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for determining barriers and facilitators to translational global healthcare research in a country-specific context, in this case the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector. Subsequent research and development work in this area needs to carefully manage and negotiate influencing factors identified through the application of the described methodology, to ensure initiatives (whether research or wider national development work) are sustainable and successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]