Identifying obstacles and drivers of social innovation in increasing the quality of life of premature children )A case study of NICU in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran with using Best Life Company's Actions)

Sadabadi, Ali Asghar; Darvishi, Zahra; Khayatian, Mohammad Sadegh; Jafarian, Fatemeh; Rahimirad, Mohsen

doi:10.22059/ijsp.2026.358310.671124

Identifying obstacles and drivers of social innovation in increasing the quality of life of premature children )A case study of NICU in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran with using Best Life Company's Actions)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Ali Asghar Sadabadi

Zahra Darvishi ¹

Mohammad Sadegh Khayatian ¹

Fatemeh Jafarian ¹

Mohsen Rahimirad ²

¹ Shahid Beheshti University

² Department of Chemical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/ijsp.2026.358310.671124

Abstract

Care and treatment in special departments for babies have different and complex dimensions. This is due to the use of advanced equipment to support the most fragile patients, combined with the high stress and precision required for their care, which creates a unique environment in these departments. This makes proper communication especially important in neonatal intensive care units. The purpose of social innovation in the health sector is to provide solutions that improve the implementation of health care programs. The proposed solutions will close the gap in the provision of healthcare services and ultimately create justice and social value. Based on this, the present study was conducted to identify the obstacles and drivers of social innovation to solve the social problem of the unfavourable quality of life of premature children in the health and treatment sector through care measures. A semi-structured questionnaire was used. Participants included neonatal doctors, nurses, parents of premature children, and experts from Imam Khomeini Hospital and Best Life Company. After interviewing the experts, MAXQDA software was used to extract the basic themes through open coding. Next, related themes were grouped, resulting in 10 key factors for implementing social innovation: obstacles (legal, financial, human, structural, social/cultural, executive) and drivers (supervisory, foundational, contextual, executive). The purpose of identifying these factors is to improve the quality of life of premature children and their families and, more broadly, to improve the health of society.

Keywords

premature baby

social innovation

life quality

healthcare

Grand theory

Subjects