Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2018 Mar 27;20(3):e104.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.9498.

Digital Transformation and Disruption of the Health Care Sector: Internet-Based Observational Study

Maximilian Herrmann #  1   2 , Philip Boehme #  1   2 , Thomas Mondritzki  1   2 , Jan P Ehlers  1 , Stylianos Kavadias  3 , Hubert Truebel  2   4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Digital Transformation and Disruption of the Health Care Sector: Internet-Based Observational Study

Maximilian Herrmann et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Digital innovation, introduced across many industries, is a strong force of transformation. Some industries have seen faster transformation, whereas the health care sector only recently came into focus. A context where digital corporations move into health care, payers strive to keep rising costs at bay, and longer-living patients desire continuously improved quality of care points to a digital and value-based transformation with drastic implications for the health care sector.

Objective: We tried to operationalize the discussion within the health care sector around digital and disruptive innovation to identify what type of technological enablers, business models, and value networks seem to be emerging from different groups of innovators with respect to their digital transformational efforts.

Methods: From the Forbes 2000 and CBinsights databases, we identified 100 leading technology, life science, and start-up companies active in the health care sector. Further analysis identified projects from these companies within a digital context that were subsequently evaluated using the following criteria: delivery of patient value, presence of a comprehensive and distinctive underlying business model, solutions provided, and customer needs addressed.

Results: Our methodological approach recorded more than 400 projects and collaborations. We identified patterns that show established corporations rely more on incremental innovation that supports their current business models, while start-ups engage their flexibility to explore new market segments with notable transformations of established business models. Thereby, start-ups offer higher promises of disruptive innovation. Additionally, start-ups offer more diversified value propositions addressing broader areas of the health care sector.

Conclusions: Digital transformation is an opportunity to accelerate health care performance by lowering cost and improving quality of care. At an economic scale, business models can be strengthened and disruptive innovation models enabled. Corporations should look for collaborations with start-up companies to keep investment costs at bay and off the balance sheet. At the same time, the regulatory knowledge of established corporations might help start-ups to kick off digital disruption in the health care sector.

Keywords: delivery of health care; diffusion of innovation; digital transformation; disruptive innovation; efficiency; entrepreneurship; health care reform; health care sector; incremental innovation; models; organizational; organizational innovation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: MH, PB, TM, and HT were full-time employees of Bayer Aktiengesellschaft at the time of preparation of the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of identified types of solutions among the projects of the 3 industry players.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of customer needs addressed among the projects of the 3 industry players.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Solutions provided and needs addressed by category.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Harvard Business Review. 2014. Oct 01, [2017-11-08]. Digital transformation in the high-tech industry: briefing paper sponsored by SAP https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/sap/18764_HBR_SAP_High_Tech_Aug_14.pdf .
    1. Kreutzer R. Treiber und Hintergrunde der digitalen Transformation. In: Schallmo D, Rusnjak A, Anzengruber J, Werani T, Junger M, editors. Digitale Transformation von Geschäftsmodellen: Grundlagen, Instrumente und Best Practices. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien; 2017. pp. 33–58.
    1. Valenduc G, Vendramin P. Digitalisation, between disruption and evolution. Transfer Eur Rev Labour Res. 2017 Apr 13;23(2):121–134. doi: 10.1177/1024258917701379. - DOI
    1. Loucks J, Macaulay J, Norohna A, Wade M. Digital Vortex: How Today's Market Leaders Can Beat Disruptive Competitors at Their Own Game. Plano: DBT Center Press; 2016.
    1. Klewes J, Popp D, Rost-Hein M. Out-thinking Organizational Communications: The Impact of Digital Transformation. Basel: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

Publication types