Digital Health Innovation Ecosystems: From Systematic Literature Review to Conceptual Framework

TLDR

The study reviews literature on digital health innovation ecosystems and proposes a conceptual framework by exploring key terms and components. The authors performed a systematic literature review across ACM, ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore, SpringerLink, and expanded to non‑academic sources and practitioner case reports. The review identified core components of digital health, innovation, and digital ecosystems, proposed a comprehensive definition, and presented a conceptual framework that may foster shared understanding and guide future research.

Abstract

This paper reviews existing literature on digital health innovation ecosystems. It aims to explore the terms digital health, innovation and digital ecosystems to identify components towards presenting a conceptual framework for a digital health innovation ecosystem as part of a larger study. A systematic literature review was conducted on four academic databases: ACM, ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore and SpringerLink. Due to the dearth in initial search results, the search was broadened to include non-academic publications and practitioner case reports. The study identified components of digital health, components of innovation relevant to the healthcare domain and components of digital ecosystems. It further suggests, within the context, a comprehensive definition of digital health innovation ecosystems. A conceptual framework for digital health innovation ecosystems is proposed. The findings from this study could conceivably be a step towards enabling a common understanding of practitioners, professionals and academics within the digital health domain as well as a basis for further studies on digital health innovation ecosystems.