Technological Ecosystems in Care and Assistance: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Applying the concepts of technological ecosystems to the care and assistance domain is an emerging field that has gained interest during the last years, as they allow to describe the complex relationships between actors in a technologically boosted care domain. In that context, this paper presents a systematic review and mapping of the literature to identify, analyse and classify the published research carried out to provide care and assistance services under a technological ecosystems’ perspective. Thirty-seven papers were identified in the literature as relevant and analysed in detail (between 2003–2018). The main findings show that it is indeed an emerging field, as few of the found ecosystem proposals have been developed in the real world nor have they been tested with real users. In addition, a lot of research to date reports the proposal of platform-centric architectures developed over existing platforms not specifically developed for care and services provision. Employed sensor technologies for providing services have very diverse natures depending on the intended services to be provided. However, many of these technologies do not take into account medical standards. The degree of the ecosystems’ openness to adding new devices greatly depends on the approach followed, such as the type of middleware considered. Thus, there is still much work to be done in order to equate other more established ecosystems such as business or software ecosystems.

Data Exploitation Model in a Health Ecosystem to Support Formal and Informal Caregivers

“…It consists in the fulfillment of a Business Model Canvas (BMC) that describes the interrelation of nine components of a business model. The proposed BMC is based in a literature review aimed to identify how technological ecosystem proposals address the business component [7], along with a systematic mapping study of the most relevant EU funded projects related to the health domain. The outcomes of these reviews (trends, lacks and opportunities, involved actors etc.)…”

“…This means that they are usually discontinued despite their great potential. For example, a recent study [7], which analyzed 37 papers focused on platforms providing care and assistance services under a technological ecosystems' perspective, showed that just three papers (8%) described an ecosystem that was deployed and tested with real users under real world conditions (out of the lab). This may be because the vast majority of such proposals do not take into account the concept of value co-creation within the ecosystem, and lack a business perspective when defining the relevant data to be exploited.…”

Modelling the business structure of a digital health ecosystem

“…Furthermore, current proposed or developed technological health ecosystems tend to have problems when it comes to being deployed in the real world. This means that they are usually discontinued despite their great potential [4]. This may be because the vast majority of such proposals do not take into account the concept of value co-creation within the ecosystem, and lack from a business perspective when defining the relevant data to be exploited.…”

Smart Cities and Healthcare: A Systematic Review

“…These studies reported on smart city applications to support population surveillance, active ageing, healthy lifestyles, disabled people, response to emergencies, care services organization, and socialization. Conclusions: Most of the included articles were either of a descriptive and conceptual nature or in an early stage of development, which means that a major barrier for their dissemination is their lack of concreteness.Technologies 2019, 7, 58 2 of 16 mindedness; and smart living-quality of life of the individuals, namely health conditions, cultural and education facilities, housing quality, and touristic attractiveness.Although there is a significant number of systematic reviews related to healthcare provision supported by IT (e.g.,[6][7][8][9][10]), to the best of the authors' knowledge, systematic reviews of the literature related to the implementation of smart cities are scarce and address specific aspects (e.g., [11][12][13]). Since systematic evidence is required to inform smart city stakeholders and researchers about state of the art solutions, the systematic review reported by the present article aimed to identify the most relevant applications supported by smart city infrastructure with an impact in the provision of healthcare, which is a relevant component of smart living.…”

“…Although there is a significant number of systematic reviews related to healthcare provision supported by IT (e.g.,[6][7][8][9][10]), to the best of the authors' knowledge, systematic reviews of the literature related to the implementation of smart cities are scarce and address specific aspects (e.g., [11][12][13]). Since systematic evidence is required to inform smart city stakeholders and researchers about state of the art solutions, the systematic review reported by the present article aimed to identify the most relevant applications supported by smart city infrastructure with an impact in the provision of healthcare, which is a relevant component of smart living.…”