An ISM and AHP-Based Analysis of Barriers to Healthcare 4.0

Abstract

Healthcare 4.0 (H4.0) is the term corresponding to Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Like other industries, the healthcare industry has also gone through several technological changes and got nourished with them. The health care system of many countries is not mature enough to swiftly transform from its current state to the H4.0 state. Even the matured healthcare systems are facing several challenges while adopting H4.0 practices. The implementation of H4.0 has many challenges (or barriers) to be overcome. This paper has attempted to understand and analyze the challenges that the current Indian hospital management system faces while implementing H4.0. This study uses an integrated approach to the decision-making process to understand the importance of these barriers from the perspective of the Indian health care system. With the help of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis, the paper has mapped the importance of barriers which need to be overcome for to make implementation of H4.0 possible.