Digital Health Procurement Ecosystem
In a digital world, this translates to having the opportunity to deliver information at everyone’s fingertips. Instead of creating just another association, we are building the digital health procurement ecosystem.
The underlying concept of the approach is to involve all relevant stakeholders to ensure greater connection, trust, and value within the European Health Procurement World (as shown in figure 1.).
Figure 1: Layers of the Ecosystem. (Top Tier at the centre through to Tier 3 which is the outside of diagram.)
Based on the synergistic nature of ecosystems, they have the power to disrupt traditional models. As the study about business ecosystems published by Roland Berger outlines: Value networks are the new form of value chains in a business ecosystem. This transformation is possible only because of collaboration among partners, from corporate to startup. Offering a more holistic view, this approach results in new opportunities to create a 360° customer journey across the borders of a single company or even industry.[1]
Health ecosystems can improve access to healthcare by removing barriers such as time delays for diagnosis and treatment and reducing costs. In a world that seems increasingly divided, we need to remember that access to healthcare is a basic human right for all.[2]
What is an ecosystem
So what is it, that we understand by an ecosystem? The concept around ecosystems is nothing new and dates back over a century deriving from the science of ecology. Biologists describe a community of living organisms (plants, animals, and bacteria) and nonliving components (air, water, soil, weather) that interact with each other as a system.
Every element of the system is interconnected; Any change of one element results in a change to the entire ecosystem. Transferring this definition and adapting it towards our business world makes the many analogies existing become visible: interaction, interoperability and interdependence.
The term ecosystem has become a frequently used term and mutated into a very well-known business buzzword used in direct connection with terms like “network” or “cluster”. Though different studies share the opinion that the difference between a network or cluster to an ecosystem is grounded in the fundamental principle of acting interconnected and with purpose. This leads us to collectively co-create and co-develop solutions for today’s challenges within a community, sharing common values and benefits.
The key role of an ecosystem play eye-level, equal partnerships, resulting in increased value and opportunities for all ecosystem players.
Why promote digital ecosystemic thinking
In times of the 4th industrial revolution, we need a different way of thinking, moving from the principles of optimization towards a more interconnected world where a digital mindset plays a crucial asset.
Why?
It has never been so easy to exchange information.
According to Moore’s law (Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel), the amount of computing power in our digital world doubles every 18 months. By 2015 we had reached a transmission speed of 100 gigabits per second. This is 10,000 times faster thank 1990. This results in a more connected world, reduction in transaction costs within and between companies.
Understanding that innovation is key to overcome today’s challenges, the ecosystem economy does not count any longer on the individual power of a single company, rather the strength of an entire ecosystem and its partners promote change and transformation. The shift towards costumer-centricity needs the digital ecosystem to ensure a more holistic perspective on human needs, irrelevant of traditional industry metrics.
This leads to completely new opportunities for growth:
- Opening new pathways to innovation
- Facilitating processes
- Being more agile
- Ensuring quicker adaption
to our fast-moving and quickly changing world, joining a broad umbrella of expertise from different organisations.
What are the benefits
Digital Transformation is directly linked to Ecosystem Thinking. With this mindset and approach we can disrupt traditional industries, creating an opportunity to shape new business models, services and products based on new value propositions and disruptive ideas. Quoting Evangelos Avramakis, Head of Digital Ecosystems R&D at Swiss Re Institute:
“Highly digitally integrated health ecosystems will allow better outcomes, and higher quality for lower costs.”[3]
Ecosystem thinking supports us building a more inclusive environment for true innovation that is not limited to a selection of companies and organisations, regions and countries. We have the opportunity to overcome existing and limiting borders. Understanding our global and competitive marketplace, the new currency to disrupt traditional industries and have by far a more strategic impact and reach is about ecosystem collaboration with an integrated multi-stakeholder backbone that helps to take more holistic decisions.
As Sudhir Kesavan, V.P. Design, Engineering & Transformation at Wipro Digital, offered a redefinition of the traditional ecosystem definition, he concludes:
“Digital ecosystem are about the exchange of data creating new system-level processes as in a digital ecosystem it is about the interaction of communities and things.”[4]
[1] Roland Berger Study: How companies of all sizes can benefit from business ecosystems
[2] Swiss Re Institute report: Health ecosystems: striving towards and integrated an seamless patient experience. Statement by Corinne Fitzgerald, Researcher Swiss Re Institute.
[3] Swiss Re Institute online publication
[4] LinkedIn Article, Digital Thinking = Design Thinking + Systems Thinking + EcoSystem Thinking.
Presenting our Ecosystem
With the aims to:
- Solve the complex challenges we face;
- Join forces to unlock the big-picture and create a shared understanding of the problems within the Health Procurement World;
- Offer solutions.
Our Ecosystem is the forum and platform for the discourse and exchange to address these issues together.