Understanding the Digital Transformation in the Healthcare Sector: A Concept-Centric Umbrella Review ; Digital Health, Winter Term 22/23

Background: The healthcare sector is facing increasingly complex challenges, including rising costs, concerns about the quality of care, limited patient access to healthcare, and an aging population. Digital transformation emerged as a potential solution to address these challenges. Therefore, comprehending the impact of digital transformation on healthcare, particularly medical work, the ensuing requirements for medical staff, and organizations, is crucial for successful and efficient implementation.
Objective: The primary objective of this research is to present a comprehensive overview of digital health concepts, construct a coherent framework to categorize and structure them, and synthesize existing research outcomes. We particularly focused on aspects related to medical work, including the impact of digital technologies on working environments, processes, and the evolving requirements for staff and organizations.
Methods: For the purpose of our work, we first conducted an umbrella literature review by searching six databases before we organized the findings in a concept matrix according to Webster and Watson and visualizd the possible interdependencies of the concepts found also with a concept board that displays the interdependencies. ... mehr
Results: The initial database search yielded 1990 results. After applying eligibility criteria, 25 reviews were included in the final review. The concept matrix structure enabled the identification and organization of 13 concepts into six concept domains.
Conclusion: Through the method of an umbrella review, we successfully developed and validated a concept matrix. This matrix helped to identify six crucial concept domains concerning digital transformation in healthcare, with a specific emphasis on medical work, and allowed us to establish connections between various concepts in the literature. Nonetheless, further studies are required to gain a deeper understanding of digital transformation in healthcare and its potential benefits.