Many eHealth initiatives are never implemented or merely endas pilot projects. Previous studies report that organizational,technical and human issues need to be properly taken into considerationif such initiatives are to be successful. The aim of thispaper is to explore whether previously identified challengeswithin the area have remained in the Swedish eHealth settingor whether they have changed. After interviewing experts ineHealth, we present a classification of areas of concern. Recurrenceof previously identified challenges was found, but alsonew issues were identified. The results of the study indicate thatthere is a need to consider organisational and semantic issueson both national and international levels. Legal and technicalchallenges still exist but it seems even more important tosupport eHealth initiatives financially, increase practitioners’knowledge in health informatics and manage new expectationsfrom patients.

Background: In spite of an increased interest in open innovation and strategies that call for an increased collaboration between different healthcare actors, there is a lack of open innovation research in public contexts.

Objective: This article presents the results of a review regarding the healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation as well as constraining factors and positive outcomes of open innovation in healthcare.

Method: The literature search focused on papers published in English between 2003 and 2014. Based on specified inclusion criteria, 18 articles were included.

Results: Results reveal that most studies focus on inbound open innovation where external knowledge is integrated with the internal knowledge base at an initial phase of the innovation process. Innovation primarily results in products and services through innovation networks. We also identified constraining factors for open innovation in healthcare, including the complex organizations of healthcare, the need to establish routines for capturing knowledge from patients and clinicians, regulations and healthcare data laws as well as the positive outcome patient empowerment.

Conclusion: The healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation is limited, and it is necessary to perform further research with a focus on how open innovation can be managed in healthcare. 

With increased patient access to data, healthcare services are experiencing change where patients are moving away from being mere passive actors towards becoming more active and involved participants. In this paper, we explore the role of patient accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) with respect to this increase in patient involvement. The study was performed as a case study and included nine interviews with patients and a survey that was responded to by 56 patients. Our results show that PAEHRs have a role in the enhancement of patient involvement because PAEHRs (i) foster a more balanced relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and (ii) increase access to information.

In this study, we explore how healthcare professionals in primary care and outpatient clinics perceive the outcomes of giving patients online access to their electronic health records. The study was carried out as a case study and included a workshop, six interviews and a survey that was answered by 146 healthcare professionals. The results indicate that professionals working in primary care perceive that an increase in information-sharing with patients can increase adherence, clarify important information to the patient and allow the patient to quality-control documented information. Professionals at outpatient clinics seem less convinced about the benefits of patient accessible electronic health records and have concerns about how patients manage the information that they are given access to. However, the patient accessible electronic health record has not led to a change in documentation procedures among the majority of the professionals. While the findings can be connected to the context of outpatient clinics and primary care units, other contextual factors might influence the results and more in-depth studies are therefore needed to clarify the concerns.

Several countries develop strategies and policies to foster the use of eHealth services and stress the importance of business models to develop and implement digital services. Previous research on business models has however mostly focused on the private setting or a healthcare setting with multi-payer or market-based financial systems. In this paper, we explore the use of business models in eHealth as well as the consistency of such a model in a public healthcare setting. The study is performed through a case study of an eHealth service and to which we apply a business model framework. Data have been collected through interviews, documents and project meetings. The results show that all parts of the business model could be identified and provide an overview of the service but no clear guidance on how to reach a sustainable value in the future. It seems that, in the case of public healthcare, there is a need to add the notion of a societal value as well as issues related to future governance for the diffusion of the service to make the business model and the service sustainable.