Digital transformation of healthcare sector. What is impeding adoption and continued usage of technology-driven innovations by end-users?

Abstract

The digital transformation of businesses is no longer debatable, and the effects are visible in all sectors. What is arguable, however, is why the transformation has not been seamless—particularly given the multiple benefits of digitalization. We seek to address this question for the healthcare sector, where various reports have acknowledged end-users’ resistance to the adoption and continued usage of technology-driven innovations (e-health innovations). These accounts, though, are largely anecdotal, and the volume of academic research in the area has remained rather confined. To address this paucity of insights, particularly after the onset of the pandemic, which has brought the healthcare sector to the fore, we conducted a qualitative study among healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff). The key objective of our study was to identify the perceived barriers and other inhibiting factors that impede individuals’ adoption and continued usage of e-health innovations. We conducted our study in the United Kingdom and analyzed the data using the classic approach of manual content analysis. Through these efforts, we identified barriers from the perspectives of healthcare providers (task-related, patient-care, and system barriers), healthcare organizations (threat perception and infrastructural barriers), patients (usability and resource barriers), and end-users in general (self-efficacy, tradition, and image barriers). Our study makes a noteworthy theoretical contribution by proposing a conceptual framework for resistance to e-health innovations that is grounded in innovation resistance theory (IRT). We also make some useful suggestions for practice that have the potential to accelerate the diffusion of e-health innovations.