Abstract
In recent years, technological progress in smart devices and artificial intelligence has also led to advancements in digital health. Digital health tools are especially prevalent in diabetes treatment and improving lifestyle. In digital health’s innovation ecosystem, new alliance networks are formed not only by medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies but also by information and communications technology (ICT) companies and start-ups. Therefore, while focusing on digital health for diabetes, this study explored the characteristics of companies with high network centralities. Our analysis of the changes in degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centralities of the sample companies from 2011 to 2020 found drastic changes in the company rankings of those with high network centrality during this period. Accordingly, the following eight companies were identified and investigated as the top-ranking technology sector companies: IBM Watson Health, Glooko, DarioHealth, Welldoc, OneDrop, Fitbit, Voluntis, and Noom. Lastly, we characterized these cases into three business models: (i) intermediary model, (ii) substitute model, and (iii) direct-to-consumer model, and we analyzed their customer value.
Highlights
On the basis of the aforementioned background, the present study explored the characteristics of technology companies with high network centralities in their alliance networks for digital health in diabetes
This period saw the rise of the technology sector companies, among which IBM Watson Health (Yorktown Heights and Albany, NY, USA), Glooko (Mountain View, CA, USA), DarioHealth (Caesarea, Israel), Welldoc (Columbia, MD, USA), OneDrop (New York, NY, USA), Fitbit (San Francisco, CA, USA), Voluntis (Suresnes, France), and Noom (New York, NY, USA) had the highest degree, betweenness, or eigenvector centralities as of 2020
Since betweenness centrality measures the openness of a network position, and since the positioning in the open network is related to the exploration stage [17], this suggests that these companies are positioned in open network and their product research and development stage is in exploration
Summary
Since 2015, technological progress in smart devices and artificial intelligence (AI) has led to advancements in the field of digital health. 1980s, internet-enabled e-health in the 1990s, mobile device-enabled mHealth since 2010, and, presently, digital health [1]. In the US, the scope of digital health includes categories such as mobile health (mHealth), health information technology (IT), wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine. Digital health is considered a “lean innovation” that is expected to increase cost efficiency. The growing aging population in these countries is expected to increase the number of patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, which would further increase healthcare costs [3]. Developing countries severely lack essential medical and healthcare services, and the situation can be aided by innovations in digital health. Digital health offers solutions to both developed and developing countries
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