Managerial Challenges in Digital Health: Bibliometric and Network Analysis

Area of Science:

• Management Science
• Health Informatics
• Information Systems

Background:

• Digital health innovations have surged over the past 2-3 decades, transforming healthcare.
• Existing research offers keyword and journal overviews but lacks structured analysis of managerial challenges.
• There is a growing need for formal reviews on the organizational, managerial, and adoption challenges of digital health technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze managerial challenges within the digital health domain.
• To contribute nuanced insights into influential studies and knowledge structure in interdisciplinary digital health management.
• To highlight foundational themes in management science relevant to digital health.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed English-language papers in the management field focusing on digital health.
• Performance analysis of the dataset to understand its structure.
• Co-citation network creation using BibExcel and clustering analysis with the Louvain algorithm in Gephi.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 1186 papers identified 520 in the co-citation network, with 468 forming 4 significant clusters.
• The clusters represent distinct research communities focused on: (1) mHealth user adoption/engagement, (2) mHealth adoption/trust, (3) healthcare digital transformation, and (4) implementation/ethical considerations.
• Managerial challenges in digital health are interdependent, with adoption studies representing current issues and ethical considerations highlighting future challenges.

Conclusions:

• Co-citation analysis reveals evolving themes in digital health management literature, with dynamic shifts towards ethical considerations, organizational changes, and societal acceptance.
• The study identified distinct research communities and highlights the need for intercluster research to bridge knowledge gaps.
• Further research is encouraged to explore ethical considerations and the intricate facets of digital health management, providing insights into principal challenges and unidentified gaps.