The Need for Systems Thinking in Digital Health Transformation

Abstract

A few decades ago, digital health was primarily limited to business-to-customer-facing wellness apps. The trajectory of the digital health transformation was significantly boosted and bolstered by significant growth in venture capital funding following the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital health venture capital funding mirrored that of siloed biomedical venture capital growth. However, the value of digital health transformation in healthcare delivery (a system of systems) goes beyond the focus on technology. For digital health transformation to realize its unique opportunity to address the fragmentation of healthcare delivery systems and to truly build digital health systems that address interoperability for healthcare systems and patients, there needs to be a systemic (systems thinking) approach to digital health transformation. It's important to note that digital health, as discussed here, includes Artificial Intelligence (AI). While this paper focuses on digital transformation in healthcare, it also acknowledges the significance of digital engineering within systems engineering. And yet, there has been minimal integration of systems engineering and systems thinking into digital health transformation. Through two illustrative examples, we apply systems thinking to analyze the systemic focus of digital health companies to illustrate by juxtaposition the differences between technology-focused and system-focused digital health companies. In doing so, we highlight the pressing need to integrate systems thinking and systems engineering into a fast-paced digital health transformation climate at this critical stage of growth.