Abstract
Demographic changes are putting the healthcare industry under pressure. However, while other industries have been able to automate their operation through robotic and autonomous systems, the healthcare sector is still reluctant to change. What makes robotic innovation in healthcare so difficult? Despite offering more efficient, and consumer-friendly care, the assistive robotics market has lacked penetration. To answer this question, we have broken down the development process, taking a market transformation perspective. By interviewing assistive robotics companies at different business stages from France and the UK, this paper identifies new insight into the main barriers of the assistive robotics market that are inhibiting the sector. Their impact is analysed during the different stages of the development, exploring how these barriers affect the planning, conceptualisation and adoption of these solutions. This research presents a foundation for understanding innovation barriers that high-tech ventures face in the healthcare industry, and the need for public policy measures to support these technology-based firms.
Highlights
Technology has always been a vital ally for healthcare [1], from the invention of new diagnostic capabilities and therapies to practices that improve the overall quality and costeffectiveness of the care delivery system
In the European Union, despite fertility levels being below what is generally regarded as the level necessary for a population to maintain its size [8], it is estimated that population levels will remain relatively static due to net migration [9], while life expectancy has increased by 2.9 years, from 77.7 in 2002 to 80.6 in 2015 [10]
That since the application of robotics in healthcare is an issue of technology or societal acceptance, but special attention has to be paid to broader market barriers and ways to overcome them
Summary
Technology has always been a vital ally for healthcare [1], from the invention of new diagnostic capabilities and therapies to practices that improve the overall quality and costeffectiveness of the care delivery system. The AR market relates to robotics and autonomous systems with the primary role of providing assistive help to carers or directly to patients in hospital, specialist care facility or domestic healthcare settings [13]. This market excludes clinical robots (e.g., surgical robots, [21,22]; robots for diagnosis [23] or training purposes [24]) and rehabilitation robots (e.g., prosthesis and exoskeletons [25] and rehabilitation systems [26]). AR includes robots for the transportation of drugs, food or other resources [35], and communication purposes [36]
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