Evaluation of Chinese healthcare organizations' innovative performance in the digital health era

Wenjun Gu; Luchengchen Shu; Wanning Chen; Jinhua Wang; Dingfeng Wu; Zisheng Ai; Jiyu Li

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1141757

Evaluation of Chinese healthcare organizations' innovative performance in the digital health era

Front Public Health. 2023 Jul 6:11:1141757. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1141757. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wenjun Gu^#¹, Luchengchen Shu^#², Wanning Chen³, Jinhua Wang⁴, Dingfeng Wu⁵, Zisheng Ai¹, Jiyu Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Shanghai Institute of Medical Innovation Technology Transfer, Shanghai, China.
⁵ National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers' relationship with industry is not merely an agent mediating between consumer and vendor, but they are also inventors of the interventions they exist to deliver. Driven by the background of the digital health era, scientific research and technological (Sci-tech) innovation in the medical field are becoming more and more closely integrated. However, scholars shed little light on Sci-tech relevance to evaluate the innovation performance of healthcare organizations, a distinctive feature of healthcare organizations' innovation in the digital health era.

Methods: Academic publications and patents are the manifestations of scientific research outputs and technological innovation outcomes, respectively. The study extracted data from publications and patents of 159 hospitals in China to evaluate their innovation performance. A total of 18 indicators were constructed, four of which were based on text similarity match and represented the Sci-tech relevance. We then applied factor analyses, analytical hierarchy process, and logistic regression to construct an evaluation model. We also examined the relationship between hospitals' innovation performance and their geographical locations. Finally, we implemented a mediation analysis to show the influence of digital health on hospital innovation performance.

Results: A total of 16 indicators were involved, four of which represented the Sci-tech including the number of articles matched per patent (NAMP), the number of patents matched per article (NPMA), the proportion of highly matched patents (HMP), and the proportion of highly matched articles (HMA). Indicators of HMP (r = 0.52, P = 2.40 × 10^-12), NAMP (r = 0.52, P = 2.54 × 10^-12), and NPMA (r = 0.51, P = 5.53 × 10^-12) showed a strong positive correlation with hospital innovation performance score. The evaluation model in this study was different from other Chinese existing hospital ranking systems. The regional innovation performance index (RIP) of healthcare organizations is highly correlated with per capita disposable income (r = 0.58) and regional GDP (r = 0.60). There was a positive correlation between digital health innovation performance scores and overall hospital innovation performance scores (r = 0.20). In addition, the hospitals' digital health innovation performance affected the hospital's overall innovation score with the mediation of Sci-tech relevance indicators (NPMA and HMA). The hospitals' digital health innovation performance score showed a significant correlation with the number of healthcare workers (r = 0.44).

Conclusion: This study constructed an assessment model with four invented indicators focusing on Sci-tech relevance to provide a novel tool for researchers to evaluate the innovation performance of healthcare organizations in the digital health era. The regions with high RIP were concentrated on the eastern coastal areas with a higher level of economic development. Therefore, the promotion of scientific and technological innovation policies could be carried out in advance in areas with better economic development. The innovations in the digital health field by healthcare workers enhance the Sci-tech relevance in hospitals and boost their innovation performance. The development of digital health in hospitals depends on the input of medical personnel.

Keywords: Chinese hospitals; Science-technology relevance; analytical hierarchy process (AHP); digital health era; evaluation model; factor analyses (FA); innovation performance; logistic regression (LG).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Delivery of Health Care*
Digital Technology*
Hospitals*
Inventions
Technology

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (71704136 to WG), Shanghai 2021 Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan Science and Technology Achievement Transfer and Transformation Service System Construction Project (21ZC2420400 to JW), Shanghai Engineering Technology Research Center and Professional Service Platform Construction Project Grant (20DZ2293800 to JL), and Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan of Building a Regional Innovation Community in the Yangtze River Delta (20642430100 to JL). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.