Putting Health 4.0 at the service of Society 5.0: Exploratory insights from a pilot study☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2021.101163Get rights and content

Highlights

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Health 4.0 fosters the transition towards patient-centeredness.

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Health 4.0 solutions should be embedded in broader socio-economic planning interventions aimed at patient empowerment.

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Value co-creation and service co-production may be enabled by health 4.0

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Health 4.0 may merge the diverging aims of curbing health care costs and increasing health services' quality.

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Health 4.0 enables a thick networking involving health professionals, patients, field operators, and caregivers.

Abstract

The Health 4.0 paradigm is reshaping the attributes of health services' delivery. Alongside triggering institutional, structural, and cultural changes for health care organizations, it aims at achieving an increased patients and caregivers' participation in the value creation process. This is consistent with the transition towards Society 5.0 in health care. Drawing on the outcome of the research project “Health management system for managing bedsores in the home care setting”, which was financed by the Operative Regional Programme of Campania, Southern Italy (Regional decree no. 614 dated October 29th, 2018 - CUP: B53D18000120007 - POR FESR Campania 2014/2020, O.S. 1.1), this study advances a Health 4.0 solution embedded in a mobile clinical Decision Support System intended to merge the diverging purposes of increasing health services' efficiency and boosting the quality of care by enacting value co-creation. The solution has been tested in a delicate health care setting, i.e. bedsores’ treatment for home-care patients. The results of the pilot test suggest that Health 4.0 generates a twofold gain. On the one hand, it enables a more effective and timelier delivery of health services, curbing health exacerbations and tackling access to emergency care. On the other hand, it creates a digital-based empowering environment for patients and informal caregivers, activating them to perform as value co-creators. Health 4.0 should enter the socio-economic planning discourse in health care, being conceived of as a solution to enhance the economic viability and the social sustainability of health care systems.

Keywords

Health 4.0
Society 5.0
Decision support system
Empowerment
Health care

Maria Vincenza Ciasullo, PhD is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Salerno, Italy where she teaches Business Administration. Since 1995 she has been coordinator and member of many national and international research projects. She is an expert in strategic management for both private and public sectors organizations, focusing on corporate social responsibility and business ethics.

Francesco Orciuoli, PhD is Associate Professor of Informatics at the University of Salerno, Italy where he teaches software design. He is author of more than 100 scientific papers on Social Semantic Web, Computational Intelligence and Distributed Software Architecture applied to Situation Awareness, Technology Enhanced Learning and Knowledge Management.

Alexander Douglas, PhD is the Editor in Chief of the TQM Journal. He has a 20-year experience in Higher Education, teaching Quality Management, Operations Management and Lean Six Sigma. Alex is an experienced researcher with over 100 publications in journals, books and magazines. Currently, he delivers training courses to Lean Six Sigma Yellow, Green and Black Belt standard and lectures in Quality Management to Post Graduate students in various international universities as a visiting professor.

Rocco Palumbo, PhD is a Senior Researcher of Organization Theory and Behavior at the Department of Management & Law, University “Tor Vergata” of Rome, Italy. Rocco is author of more than 100 scientific publications, including articles, books, and book chapters. His main research interests include, but are not limited to: human resource management, team performance management and workplace discrimination.

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The research was financed by the Operative Regional Programme of Campania, Southern Italy (Regional decree no. 614 dated October 29th, 2018 - CUP: B53D18000120007 - POR FESR Campania 2014/2020, O.S. 1.1).

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