Analysing Trends in the Healthcare Industry: Impact of Information Technology and Digitalisation on Healthcare Delivery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FEM.2025.06.30.02Keywords:
telemedicine, digital health, e-health, m-health, ai, healthcare access, medical appsAbstract
With the increasing integration of digital technologies in medical practice, healthcare providers, patients, and administrators are witnessing the evolution of traditional healthcare models into more dynamic, data-driven systems.
Aims: To evaluate the effect of information technology digitization on the delivery of medical services, such as the advantages and disadvantages that come with the use of digital healthcare solutions.
Study design: A bibliometric analysis was done between 1973 and 2025 using an extensive dataset of 2848 documents from the Scopus database.
Methodology: The publication analyses, citation analyses, co-authorship network, and keyword clusters were assessed using the bibliometric software VOSviewer (v.1.6.19) and Biblioshiny (R v.4.4.2).
Results: From the analysis of 1,168 sources spanning 1973 to 2025, the research focus is on health digitalization, where 2,848 documents were used. The dataset indicates an annual growth rate of 7.85%. The substantial scholarly impact is suggested through the mean document age of 6.93 years, which has 24.37 citations, on average, per document. There is a strong international research network demonstrated by an international collaboration of 21.38% and co-authorship of 6.35 authors per document. Publication trends indicate peaks in 2021 with 380 articles, followed by 2024 with 319 articles and 2022 with 293 articles. The documents that were cited the most 10 times focused on mHealth, telemedicine, and acceptance of technology, while the most cited paper was on mHealth adoption among the elders. It was published in 2017 and has 705 citations. Major contributors are the USA, China, and European countries, while the leading institutions in the co-authorship network include the University of Ottawa and Harvard Medical School.
Conclusion: The analysis highlights the significant growth in health digitalization research, with strong international collaboration and impactful contributions from leading institutions. mHealth, telemedicine, and technology acceptance dominate, with notable studies on mHealth adoption among elders.
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