JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The healthcare digital transformation is gaining increasing notoriety, despite the observed challenges in its implementation. The envisioned benefits together with the growing need for better healthcare are motivating academia, organizations, regulatory agencies, and governments to develop more effective digital healthcare solutions. Through extensive debates among the authors and supported by a narrative literature review, this paper discusses how digital transformation is being conducted in the healthcare sector. Our discussion relies on the concepts from the sociotechnical systems theory categorizing it according to three social (people, culture, and goals) and three technical (processes/procedures, infrastructure, and technology) dimensions. Overall, we argue that both social and technical dimensions present elements that have been either encouraging or discouraging the progress of healthcare digital transformation. The identification of current trends on such (on- and off-track) elements allowed the formulation of propositions for future testing and validation. This approach can help the establishment of better government policies, foster private initiatives, and shift regulatory guidelines to support a successful digital transformation in health systems. Lastly, from a research perspective, we outline some opportunities for further interdisciplinary investigation in the field, promoting advances in the understanding of healthcare digital transformation.