eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Information and communications technology has increased productivity in many sectors of the economy, and economic growth rests more and more on the contributions of ICT. However, even though the investments in ICT have been growing, the adoption information and communication technology has been relatively slow in health care industry. Health care systems are under constant discussion and there is pressure to improve productivity, as the already struggling industry will face serious challenges due to the ageing population. As the population is ageing, the demand for health services will increase and the labor force decrease. Thus, to be able to provide good quality health services to the citizens, the productivity needs to increase and it is widely believed that ICT will be playing a major role.

This thesis discusses the role of ICT in improving productivity in the health care sector as well as the related problems and the reasons behind the slow adoption. The discussion is based on existing literature and research on the subject. Health ICT applications are constantly developing and new research comes up frequently, and one of the objectives is to get a picture of the current situation in Finland as well as in Europe and the US.

Moreover, memory disorders will be posing a major challenge for future health care. Due to population ageing the prevalence of dementia is going to increase and there is discussion about the use of ICT to enhance productivity in home care. Especially smart living environment technology has received a lot of attention in this context, and also the last chapter of this thesis deals with a particular Oulu-based smart living environment project called “Value Creation in Smart Living Environments for Senior Citizens”. I try to assess the cost-effects of possible technology solutions, but since there is no concrete technology yet, I have been able to get only very rough and suggestive results of the cost reductions. The calculations are based on information attained by interviewing two home care nurses and the Service Chief of home care in the city of Oulu.

The main conclusions are that despite its limits, it seems that eventually ICT will be effecting the productivity in health care greatly, and possibly change the process considerably. Furthermore, with the help of ICT, the focus is moving from acute type of care towards more prevention and self-care, which – in the long run – is obviously good for the economy as well as our health.