Hospital investment decisions in healthcare 4.0 technologies: Scoping review and framework for exploring challenges, trends, and research directions

• Autores: Vassolo, Roberto Santiago; Mac Cawley, Alejandro Francisco; Tortorella, Guilherme Luz; Fogliatto, Flavio Sanson; Tlapa, Diego; Narayanamurthy, Gopalakrishnan
• Año de publicación: 2021
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: DECISION MAKING; DECISION-MAKERS; HEALTH CARE INVESTMENT; HEALTH TECHNOLOGY; HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT; HEALTHCARE 4.0; HOSPITAL; HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT; INVESTMENTS; NEW TECHNOLOGIES; PUBLIC HEALTH; REAL OPTIONS; SCOPING REVIEW; SMART TECHNOLOGY; TECHNOLOGICAL BUNDLES; TECHNOLOGY
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Background: Alternative approaches to analyzing and evaluating health care investments in state-of-the-art technologies are being increasingly discussed in the literature, especially with the advent of Healthcare 4.0 (H4.0) technologies or eHealth. Such investments generally involve computer hardware and software that deal with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision-making. Besides, the use of these technologies significantly increases when addressed in bundles. However, a structured and holistic approach to analyzing investments in H4.0 technologies is not available in the literature. Objective: This study aims to analyze previous research related to the evaluation of H4.0 technologies in hospitals and characterize the most common investment approaches used. We propose a framework that organizes the research associated with hospitals' H4.0 technology investment decisions and suggest five main research directions on the topic. Methods: To achieve our goal, we followed the standard procedure for scoping reviews. We performed a search in the Crossref, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases with the keywords investment, health, industry 4.0, investment, health technology assessment, healthcare 4.0, and smart in the title, abstract, and keywords of research papers. We retrieved 5701 publications from all the databases. After removing papers published before 2011 as well as duplicates and performing further screening, we were left with 244 articles, from which 33 were selected after in-depth analysis to compose the final publication portfolio. Results: Our findings show the multidisciplinary nature of the research related to evaluating hospital investments in H4.0 technologies. We found that the most common investment approaches focused on cost analysis, single technology, and single decision-maker involvement, which dominate bundle analysis, H4.0 technology value considerations, and multiple decision-maker involvement. Conclusions: Some of our findings were unexpected, given the interrelated nature of H4.0 technologies and their multidimensional impact. Owing to the absence of a more holistic approach to H4.0 technology investment decisions, we identified five promising research directions for the topic: development of economic valuation methodologies tailored for H4.0 technologies; accounting for technology interrelations in the form of bundles; accounting for uncertainties in the process of evaluating such technologies; integration of administrative, medical, and patient perspectives into the evaluation process; and balancing and handling complexity in the decision-making process.
Fil: Vassolo, Roberto Santiago. Universidad Austral. Instituto de Altos Estudios; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Mac Cawley, Alejandro Francisco. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile
Fil: Tortorella, Guilherme Luz. Universidad Austral. Instituto de Altos Estudios; Argentina. University of Melbourne; Australia. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; Brasil
Fil: Fogliatto, Flavio Sanson. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; Brasil
Fil: Tlapa, Diego. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California; México
Fil: Narayanamurthy, Gopalakrishnan. University of Liverpool; Reino Unido