Healthcare's digital revolution

On one end, digital transformation is a technological revolution: mobile internet is more widely available than ever before, smartphones have been democratized, clouds have revealed the potential for almost infinite storage, and the cost of these services is constantly decreasing. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s sociological: faster and more successful market penetrations have left consumers expecting both continuous and immediate service availability. As the industrial application of these digital transformations, Industry 4.0 is radically changing value creation in every market. In this study, we examine the impact it is making on the healthcare industry.

Industry 4.0 combines a wide set of technologies at different stages of maturity. Supported by new enabler technologies and propositions, there are four levers at play: digital data, interconnectivity, automation, and digital customer interface. In MedTech, the two most important are data and connectivity, which are opening the door to new sensor and data analytic operations, as well as remote surgical procedures, training, maintenance, and service operations. Bioprinting is also finding its first applications in the field of regenerative medicine.

Digital transformation

Moreover, digital transformation has made information a top value driver in the healthcare industry, leaving data-driven business models with the potential to re-shape the customer landscape. These new business models are based on collecting and connecting health-related data from all available sources, extracting meaningful information from that data, and providing that information to other players. In this study, we present a data-based business model landscape in healthcare that incorporates over 290 existing business models and market approaches. Although leading players have already started to leverage this extra value for their business, the key to ongoing success will lie in knowing how to acquire and retain access to the required data, as well as how to interpret it and generate value from it—both now and in the future.