The Digital Transformation of Healthcare

Book excerpt: Health 4.0 is a term that has derived from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), as it pertains to the healthcare industry. This book offers a novel, concise, but at the same time, broad picture of the challenges that the technological revolution has created for the healthcare system. It offers a comprehensive view of health sector actors’ interaction with the emerging new technology, which is disrupting the status quo in health service delivery. It explains how these technological developments impact both society and healthcare governance. Further, the book addresses issues related to key healthcare system stakeholders: the state, patients, medical professionals, and non-governmental organizations. It also examines areas of healthcare system adaptiveness and draws its conclusions by analysing recent health policy changes in different countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The authors offer an innovative approach to the subject by identifying the critical determinants of successful implementation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s outcomes in practice, on both a macro- and microlevel. The macrolevel analysis is focused on essential factors of healthcare system adaptiveness for Health 4.0, while the microlevel relates to patients’ expectations with a particular emphasis on senior citizens. The book will appeal to academics, researchers, and students, across a wide range of disciplines, such as health economics, health sciences, public policy, public administration, political science, public governance, and sociology. It will also find an audience among healthcare professionals and health and social policymakers due to its recommendations for implementing Industry 4.0 into a healthcare system.