Creating a market for ehealth entrepreneurs

• Digitalisation is rapidly changing the conditions for providing healthcare. New digital products and services are continuously integrated into the operations although not without frequent hurdles and difficulties. In addition, the ehealth market for public healthcare is dominated by fairly large companies while smaller, entrepreneurial companies have difficulties accessing the public health market. The purpose for the project reported in this paper is to examine how the competitiveness of ehealth entrepreneurs can be increased by gaining access to public healthcare. The aim is to develop a model describing the necessary conditions for a common development-process involving organisations in healthcare and small and medium size companies (SMEs), which can serve as a support in iterative improvement activities. The main methodology used in the project has been interactive workshops led by a professional moderator. Ten workshops involving representatives from healthcare, elderly care, SMEs and academia as well as politicians have been carried out. The findings are summarised in the model which gradually has emerged. The model has four vital cornerstones: understanding of needs, technical openness, procurement process and collaboration forum. Understanding of needs is a crucial aspect both from the perspective of healthcare and from SMEs. Currently, dialogue is lacking and SMEs do not in enough detail understand the processes taking place in healthcare and thus which the problems are. On the other hand, the healthcare representatives often do not have any overview of which suppliers and products exist and in what way they can aid in their operations. This leads to the procurement process often being ad hoc at the same time as it is limited by public procurement rules which frequently are too rigidly followed. Consequently, competence development of both healthcare organisations and SMEs is key to success. This development process will be highly facilitated by a collaboration forum – an arena in which healthcare representatives and SMEs can meet and learn from each other. The model, with its cornerstones, constitutes the main finding of the project.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

eHealth

SMEs

Healthcare

procurement

digitalisation

competence development

Health Informatics

Hälsoinformatik

Ledarskap, entreprenörskap och organisation

Ledarskap, entreprenörskap och organisation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)