From Theory to Practice: Operational Stakeholder Management Frameworks in Healthcare - A Scoping Review

Stakeholder management (ShM) is essential for healthcare projects, particularly for medical data platform development, which involves diverse stakeholders and complex socio-technical challenges spanning ethical, legal, technical, and human and organizational dimensions. While theoretical frameworks exist, their practical implementation often remains unclear. Operational ShM frameworks that provide actionable guidance are critical to ensure that project managers can effectively engage stakeholders to improve project outcomes.

A scoping literature search in Google Scholar and Scopus screened the top 30 results from each database for studies presenting operational ShM, stakeholder analysis (ShA), or engagement (ShE) frameworks in healthcare research or institutions. Ten studies were included.

Frameworks varied in scope, methods, and completeness; four focused on ShA, four on ShE, and two covered the full ShM process. Only one study provided a comprehensive guideline spanning all steps and including continuous stakeholder management.

Operational ShM frameworks in healthcare remain scarce, highlighting the need to develop a practical, actionable framework providing clear guidance for stakeholder management. Such a framework is critical for effectively coordinating diverse stakeholders and supporting project managers in implementing robust, context-sensitive digital health infrastructures.