Misalignments in the Digitalization of Proximity Health Care Services. A Case Study Upon Reforms in Italy

The use of ICT resources in healthcare has been growing since the 2000s because can lead to cost saving, time saving, errors reduction, improvement of medical practice. In Italy, Mission 6 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (M6-PNRR) allocates 8.6 billions for disseminating telemedicine strengthening the healthcare system’s information and digital tools. Considering the theories on ecosystem innovation in healthcare, this study, using a mixed-method approach, investigates the gaps between ideas and design by the policymakers and the correspondences by the side of health operators. Our results confirm that, a huge problem in the health sector is not innovation per se, but the dissemination of innovative concepts. Service innovation in healthcare is successful only if it can satisfy users’ needs. A fundamental role has been found in the GPs, seen as strategical promoters. Another important aspect has been found in Covid health crisis as a buster of digitalization, thus confirming previous research. But another important aspect has been found in the need of “educating/training” patients, thus revealing the importance of really creating a co-production scheme for developing a real effective digitalized system. The commitment and active participation of patients represents indeed a prerequisite for obtaining high adherence, but if users are culturally not keen in contributing to the process, the potential of digitalization remains unexploited.