Technological Innovation and Diffusion within the Healthcare Sector

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND DIFFUSION WITHIN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR
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Contents Introduction. 3 Technological Innovation. 3 Definition. 3 Technological Innovation in the Healthcare Sector 4 Benefits of technological Innovation in the Healthcare Sector 5 Risks and Challenges. 6 Technological Diffusion. 7 Definition. 7 Technological Diffusion in the Healthcare Sector 8 Benefits of Technological Diffusion in the Healthcare Sector 9 Risks and challenges. 9 Conclusion. 10 References. 11
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND DIFFUSION IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR
Introduction
The healthcare sector is a crucial entity because of the services that it provides. Like any other segments, this sector relies heavily on technological innovations to enhance service provision and ensure customer satisfaction. This report looks at the technological revolution in the healthcare sector. Technological innovation entails the way an organization or a firm introduces new techniques, products, or services to enhance its performance. Diffusion of innovation refers to the manner in which innovations spread to other firms and organizations and other regions in different countries. Consequently, this report considers the concept of technological interdependence in the healthcare sector. The main objective of this consideration is to assess the ways in which technological innovation and diffusion has significantly transformed the healthcare sector in terms of enhancing patient experience and improving their outcomes.
Technological Innovation
Definition
According to Camisón and Villar-López (2014), innovation refers to the way a corporate entity creates new commodities, procedures, or conceptions or addresses product portfolio, procedures, and thoughts in novel ways. In the healthcare sector, hospitals and clinics continue to explore the various ways that they can benefit from technology. According to D'Agostino et al. (2021), the technological revolution in the health sector, which has resulted in the significant increase in the application of information and communication technologies, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be because of a revolution among the users whose relationship with ICT has encouraged the healthcare systems to adopt these new innovations. These technologies have been instrumental in shaping internal processes or activities and corporate frameworks in the health sector. Some hospitals mix different strategies to attain maximum efficiency in their operations.
Technological Innovation in the Healthcare Sector
The three categories of innovation implemented in the healthcare sector include incremental, disruptive, and radical innovation (Coad et al., 2014). Incremental innovation uses current tech in an active market. The goal is to improve an existing service by introducing new components, implementing design improvements, etc. Disruptive innovation involves innovating different technologies, processes, or revolutionary strategic plans into established industries. At first glance, developing advancements appear less capable than existing ones. Despite this, after a few tweaks, they surpassed them and swept the market because of the performance and quality advantages they provide. There is a distinct lack of radical innovation among the three. Radical innovation is the development of new technologies, goods, and business methods that allow for the creation of wholly new economies.
Attaining appropriate technological innovation is a challenging exercise. Even in the presence of IT and funding support, organizations have to be conversant with other factors that may interfere with their adoption of the technologies. The technological revolution significantly depends on the people, technology, and processes for its success. The people involved include patients, service providers, business sponsors, end users, clinical staff, clearing houses, and software vendors. In addition, they include the policy makers, plan sponsors, and brokers. The technology involved includes insurance company systems, patient information systems, sponsor information maintenance systems.
Healthcare sectors adopt these technologies for various reasons. The technologies allow them to serve more patients and enhance patient outcome. Even if it's a tiny healthcare, adding a dash of innovation helps it flourish. For example a small hospital without sufficient physical facility can opt for telehealthcare, where the service providers maintain contact with their patients through modern technologies. This ability to connect with the patients regardless of the location requires an advanced level of technological interdependence.
Further, innovation allows a hospitals to differentiate itself from its rivals rivals. Many hospitals are businesses that sell their services to the customers. The healthcare facility personnel wants to provide something distinctive to be unique and lure people towards the entity. Additionally, consumers' needs are met. To stay ahead of the curve, hospitals must be creative. Entrepreneurs see market trends from afar and enable businesses to suggest solutions to customers' problems before realizing they require solutions. Healthcare sectors will not meet their customers' needs in the long-term except if they recognize the importance of invention and take measures to put it into practice.
They try to develop new strategies to keep customers engaged while still meeting their needs. Also, with the help of innovation, technological advances are utilized. Technologies are progressing faster than ever before, indicating that modern, efficient solutions to help businesses manufacture more significant priorities, give services, promote the firm, or analyze performance using analytics are accessible (Coad et al.,2014). By employing these technological advancements for innovativeness, companies enhance their activities and gain a competitive advantage.
Benefits of technological Innovation in the Healthcare Sector
The advantages that successful inventions provide to a healthcare organization are numerous. First, increasing productivity gains and cost savings. Process innovation seeks to reduce operating costs. For example, implementation of a patient information management system plays an essential role in reducing the time needed to serve the patients. The service providers easily obtain the patient information and other relevant details, reducing the service time, saving costs, and increasing patient satisfaction. Increasing any organization’s productivity allows it to benefit from economies of scale. Secondly, patients’ needs are met with higher-quality services and goods.
Moreover, technological innovation also increases the sustainability of the healthcare facilities. Hospitals can reduce pollution, create reduced waste, and conform to changes in technological advancements through innovations. Lastly, preservation, commitment, and hiring of employees are strengthened. A benefit is not always obvious but is typically significant. Potential strong contenders are drawn to a firm with a track development record (Öberg, 2019). Innovative firms have a reputation for being an inspiring environment to work in.
Risks and Challenges
While technological innovation has been beneficial to most hospitals, it has also been characterized by various challenges, one of them being security. Hospitals deal with sensitive patient information and hence features very strict requirements concerning the cryptographic security that dictates the ways in which information needs to be collected and stored. Consequently, the hospitals have to follow complex encryption algorithms and data security protocol in establishing compliant technological innovations. Since some of these technologies are patented, the organization has to obtain patent rights and also ensure that they comply with the government’s regulations on operation of such systems. Ultimately, the process of installing the technologies can be quite complex and costly. The problem is exacerbated when dealing with more than two technological vendors, because there will be a need to synchronize the software from the two companies.
Another problem associat...