Motivators and Barriers impacting the Healthcare Information Technology Adoption

Abstract

Health information technology (HIT) is a huge and growing industry that shows considerable promise as a means to revolutionize and transform the healthcare sector by providing timelier, more efficient, and higher-quality care. Yet, despite its promise, it is seeing slower growth than desired because of the numerous barriers and the lack of motivation surrounding its implementation and usage, even in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country that has seen more growth than most in the region. Three studies were conducted to understand these motivators and barriers in the UAE as perceived by representatives of four healthcare stakeholder categories—employers, patients, UAE citizens, and foresight experts. Initial interviews (N = 115) were conducted to gain in-depth data about motivators and barriers. Then, participants were surveyed to provide their ratings of 41 motivators (N = 391) and 47 barriers (N = 150). Exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the responses, revealing four latent motivational constructs (quality management, information sharing, strategic governance, and technology infrastructure) and four latent barrier constructs (organizational strategy, technical barriers, readiness for big data and the internet of things (IoT), and orientation). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed strong impacts of each of the four motivational factors on HIT adoption (≥ 0.78) and a moderate effect (0.66) on the readiness for big data and IoT in HIT adoption. Strong impacts of the other barrier factors on HIT adoption were also identified (≥ 0.83). These findings suggest that, in order to improve widespread use and implantation of healthcare technologies and growth of the HIT sector, important areas of investment are governmental vision and support, data security and privacy, professional development, and long-term usability of the technology.

keywords Innovation Diffusion Theory, Internet of Things, Ministry of Health, Organizational Strategy