Toward an Innovation-Oriented Research Directive at EsSalud

Abstract

This letter highlights the need for health systems to establish an institutional directive linking research with innovation and knowledge transfer. Research management often focuses on scientific and ethical approval, study implementation, closure, and publication, without ensuring that findings progress toward policy decisions, improvements in healthcare delivery, or health technologies. A pathway is proposed connecting health needs, priority setting, evidence generation, opportunity identification, validation, maturation, and subsequent adoption or transfer. The letter also proposes managing an institutional scientific portfolio based on relevance, quality of evidence, uncertainty, risk, feasibility, maturity, and expected value. The ISO 56000 family, particularly ISO 56001, ISO 56007, and ISO 56008, provides useful references for structuring the governance and measurement of this process without standardizing creativity or automatically implying certification. This articulation could help direct institutional scientific capacity toward applications in public policy, healthcare practice, and health technologies.