Digital health implementation in Australia: A scientometric review of the research

Abstract

Objective: Australia is committed to establishing a digitally enabled healthcare system that fosters innovation, strengthens data capabilities, and establishes a foundation for future digital health reform. This study provides a comprehensive overview of digital health implementation research in Australia, employing scientometric analysis and data visualization. We assess the existing knowledge base, identify key research areas and frontier trends, and explore their implications for healthcare delivery in rural and remote settings.

Methods: A systematic search of the Web of Science Core Collection database was conducted for relevant documents up to December 31, 2023. Analysis of annual growth patterns, journals, institutional and authorship contributions, reference co-citation patterns, and keyword co-occurrence was conducted using scientometrics to create outputs in the form of graphs and tables. Evolutionary analyses were undertaken to delineate the current knowledge base, predominant research themes, and frontier trends in the field.

Results: A total of 196 documents related to digital health implementation in Australia were identified, demonstrating sustained growth since 2019. The evolution of the field is characterized by four distinct phases, with a pronounced focus on telehealth, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Remote health' emerged as a significant area of contemporary interest.

Conclusions: This scientometric study contributes to our understanding of digital health implementation research in Australia. Despite a considerable body of research, there remains a relative paucity of studies focused on implementation in underserved rural and remote areas which arguably stand to benefit the most from digital health advancements. Continued research in this field is crucial to ensure equitable access to the benefits offered by digital health innovations.

Keywords: Australia; Digital health; healthcare delivery; implementation science; knowledge discovery.

Figure 1.

PRISMA flow chart of the literature search strategy.

Figure 2.

Annual trends in publications and citations from inception to 31 December 2023.

Figure 3.

Visualization of the journal network. The colour of the node represents the change in the number of published documents over time.

Figure 4.

Network visualization of institutions. Colours represent institutional collaboration networks.

Figure 5.

Network visualization of author cooperation. Colours represent author collaboration networks.

Figure 6.

Top 10 documents with the strongest citation bursts.^–

Figure 7.

Timeline visualization of document co-citation clustering (modularity Q score = 0.9021 and silhouette score = 0.9511).

Figure 8.

Keyword co-occurrence (a) network map; (b) clustering density map; (c) cluster analysis.

Figure 9.

The top 10 keyword terms with the most citation bursts, where the blue line represents the time interval, and the red line represents the time during which the keyword bursts were discovered.

Figure 10.

Timeline view of keyword clustering analysis. Each node indicates when the keyword appears for the first time in large numbers.