Value-Based Healthcare: Drivers and Barriers to Digital Healthcare Services Adoption and Delivery

OBJECTIVES: Digital technologies open up multiple opportunities for value-based healthcare. Digital healthcare services can connect distant regions, enable real-time remote patient monitoring, personalized, preventive, and participative approaches. Consequently, they can create economic and social value relevant to healthcare specialists, patients, and other stakeholders. Digital healthcare services saw a rise in development and use during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering crucial assistance for remote consultations and patient care. However, as the situation evolves and the world gradually recovers, there has been a regression in the scope of these services, with a return to more traditional healthcare practices. This paper aims to explore how to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies while discussing drivers and barriers to adopting digital healthcare services across three different countries.

METHODS: Our study is based on a qualitative research design and interviews with 63 healthcare ecosystem stakeholders across 18 healthcare organizations in the United States, Spain, and Lithuania to understand the drivers and barriers affecting the deployment of digital healthcare services.

RESULTS: The study unveiled significant drivers and barriers perceived at the individual, organizational, technological, and country level. The main barriers are needing: 1) more relevant feedback from diverse stakeholders; 2) digital services capabilities; and 3) embeddedness into the regular practices. The main drivers are: 1) patient empowerment; 2) advanced functionality and 3) value-based healthcare.

CONCLUSIONS: The success of digital healthcare adoption depends on well-functioning local and global healthcare ecosystems. Thus, this paper reveals individual, organizational, clinical, technological, and country-level drivers and barriers across three different countries, focusing on what might be learned from and enhanced by health policy regulators and the management of healthcare organizations.