HEALTH POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF INDUSTRY 4.0

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is currently unfolding. It is known as Industry 4.0 and is based on cyber-physical systems of production, together with a combination of real and virtual worlds. Human nature, management, and lifestyle, influenced by the use of digital technologies, they all undergo changes. Digital transformations are taking place.

The purpose of the study is to examine prevailing tendencies in the digital transformation of healthcare in the framework of Industry 4.0 development and identify areas for improvement in health policy.

The interpenetration of digital and biological technologies is destroying the usual healthcare structure and raising the importance of data integration and management at all levels of the system. Nowadays, innovations in the healthcare are leading to a “realignment of forces” within the healthcare sector; the boundaries between stakeholders’ interests begin to blur (insurers are investing in services, suppliers are exploring production opportunities etc.). The direction of further innovations in the healthcare domain is focused not so much on the creation of new technologies, as on new business models. Patients are transformed from passive health care recipients to active participants in the treatment process, their behavior and expectations changes, and thus, the consumerization of healthcare develops.

Emergent technologies, on the one hand, offer new solutions to health problems and, on the other, introduce new threats. Politicians are concerned, above all, with genome editing and transhuman improvement, as well as the ethical aspects of R&D. Potential threats should be prevented by streamlining the processes that are underway in the fields of digital and biological technologies, by enhancing the protection of personal data, prohibiting discrimination and inequality in all manifestations, by formulating relevant legislation and strengthening state regulation of that sphere.

Digital transformation of healthcare needs changes at both macro-level (policies to support digital innovation in healthcare; introduction of the risk-sharing model in public-private partnership in digital transformation projects), and micro-level (financial support for change management; changes in organizational culture).

In Ukraine, there is a formation process of an institutional mechanism for the digitalization development. However, the legislative coverage of issues related to the digital transformation of society is superficial. Problematic issues that have been addressed are lack of digital development programs for industries; absence of mechanisms for managing integration processes in the context of digitalization; low development of digital infrastructure.

When introducing new technologies in healthcare, it is necessary to consider the interests of all stakeholders in society and refine policies to regulate the use of the digital technologies and protect personal data.