User innovation in healthcare : a perspective across developing countries

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, João Pedro Rodrigues
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/22734
• topic: User innovation; Healthcare; Developing countries; Complementary assets; Socioeconomic; Inovação por utilizadores; Saúde; Países subdesenvolvidos; Ativos complementares; Fatores socioeconómicos; Inovação reversa; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The healthcare sector faces vital challenges, on the one hand the spread of chronic diseases at a global scale. On the other hand, rising delivery costs in healthcare create a necessity for innovation. Research show patients and caregivers as one of the sources for innovation in healthcare, by self-providing treatments, therapies or medical devices to better cope with their unmet needs, imposed by health disorders commercially unattractive for medical manufacturers’ investment (Oliveira et al., 2015). Van der Boor et al. (2014) concluded that high levels of need, the existence of flexible platforms, and the access to information and communication technology, contribute to the occurrence of this phenomenon in the developing world. Our research questions are: What are the major drivers for user innovation in healthcare, in developing countries? Which socio-economic factors influence user innovations development in these countries? Which local complementary assets affect entrepreneurship? To what extent can user solutions, created in developing countries, be adopted in developed regions? We applied a multiple case-study method, conducting eleven semi-structured interviews and four surveys of “patient innovators” from 13 developing countries. 86.7% of the innovations were developed by users with a clear perception of the fragile conditions in the analysed countries. Reputation achieved amongst their communities was recognized by users as another major driver (46.7%). The most problematic socioeconomic factor verified is healthcare, where 86.7% of user innovators reported issues. 66.7% of users rely on complementary technologies as the major complementary asset. Furthermore, 20.0% sample solutions could be adopted by developed countries.