Healthy 3.0

Abstract

Over the past few years, healthcare practice has evolved to include new forms of information and communication technologies, and healthcare providers have begun to leverage IT solutions and the internet to reach consumers in transformative ways. There is a common thought both in business and academia that the technology adoption process is a key component of success and allows firms to achieve and sustain competitive advantages. Therefore, this research attempts to reinforce the assessment of ICT impacts on healthcare, analyzing it from two different perspectives: 1) firm performance, which is measured as a combination of induced and intangible benefits beyond the traditional financial benefits; and 2) healthcare providers' acceptance and adoption of ICT tools. To assess the first perspective, a structural equation model was applied to a large database sample covering firms from 17 European countries. The results reinforce the importance of induced and structural benefits in firms' overall performance. The second perspective was analyzed only for the Portuguese healthcare providers sample. These results can be a starting point for rethinking the healthcare models emphasizing the perspectives of Healthy 2.0 and considering that patients' technological pattern evolution will lead to Healthy 3.0 in the short term. Nevertheless, some questions remain unanswered regarding the impacts of the ICT acceptance process on overall benefits; therefore, future research will focus on this domain.