Adoption of IoT based innovations for healthcare service delivery in Saudi Arabia

Previous research predicted that the information technology (IT) applications with the Internet of Things (IoT) based innovations will revolutionise the healthcare industry and thereby enable improvement of the real-time reporting of patients’ health data. However, the adoption of IoT technology and its relevant interventions in the healthcare sector have not been as fast as the uptake in other industries. With consideration for this issue, this qualitative phenomenological research was conducted to illuminate the factors that affect IoT adoption and its integration for healthcare service delivery in Saudi Arabia. To this end, the study explored the lived experiences of healthcare administrators in using IoT devices as they deliver healthcare services. The five participants, who worked in hospitals and clinics in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, took part in the semi-structured interviews developed on the basis of the diffusion of innovation theory. The findings indicated that the capacity of the Saudi healthcare sector to accept and implement a new IT with IoT technologies and its integrations are still being a debated issue.