Is e-health a disruptive innovation within a healthcare deliver?

• Autor(a) principal: Alksnin, Oliwia Anna
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/19440
• topic: Ehealth; Disruptive innovation; Healthcare delivery; Hypothesis testing; Ciências Sociais : Economia e Gestão

Disruptive Innovation is a complex concept introduced in 1995 by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen, and describes a situation when simpler technology unseats the dominant one in the industry. However, currently it became a very popular “buzzword” and many innovations are called that way without a throughout analysis. eHealth, an ICT-based innovation within the healthcare delivery is commonly called disruptive in many publications such as: professional articles and books. However, there has never been done a detailed analysis to support this hypothesis. This work aims to analyze if the label of disruptiveness is suitable for this specific technology. The main characteristics of the concept were listed and subsequently tested whether they apply to eHealth - innovation within very peculiar healthcare delivery industry. This analysis indicated that eHealth, although may become disruptive, does not fit into traditional disruptive theory framework proposed in 1995.