Getting to Now: The Challenge of Stimulating Innovation in Complex Systems.

In this issue of Healthcare Papers, Anne Snowdon clearly articulates the elements necessary for a health system innovation agenda. Although these steps are not easy - witness the slow progress of the adoption and diffusion of innovation across Canadian healthcare - they are relatively simple and provide a nice counterpoint to our usual concerns about how to effect change within the complex environment of healthcare. The commentators in this issue re-enforce the importance of particular elements or the feasibility of taking some of the first hard steps.