Development of digital healthcare technologies within the concept of responsible innovation

Aim. The work aimed to determine the way the economic and organizational foundations for managing the digital healthcare circuit contribute to the creation of “responsible” technologies. Objectives . The work analyzes the regulatory and methodological foundations governing the processes of creating digital healthcare technologies; conducts an exploratory analysis of data on public procurement of digital healthcare technologies for the period of implementation of the federal project Creating a Single Digital Circuit in Healthcare Based on the Uniform State Health Information System (USHIS) (2019–2024); and presents the factors influencing the processes of implementing digital healthcare projects, based on the value system of responsible healthcare innovations. Methods . The work identifies factors influencing the implementation of regional digital healthcare projects using the policy frameworks, namely Responsible Innovation in Health (RIH), Health Technology Assessment (HTA), and Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The factors are presented in terms of such values of the responsible approach as public health, healthcare system, economy, organization, and environment. Based on the data of public procurement of digital health technologies for 2019–2024, selected by relevant codes of types of expenses, while the results are supplemented by testing hypotheses about the impact of financing processes on project implementation. Results . The digital health management system is focused on the development of a regional standard scenario, which restricts regional authorities in conducting a full-fledged economic assessment of purchased digital solutions, which involves comparing several promising options. Public procurement serves as a mechanism for delivering funds to the contractor rather than as a tool for facilitating high-quality project implementation, which is expressed in periods of active procurement and disproportionate deadlines and contract prices. Conclusions . The grounds for development in digital health contribute to the expansion of innovation in the regions. However, administrative processes influencing their generation have an impeding effect on activities of responsible innovation development. Concluding contracts with a predominance of the electronic auction (76.6% of cases) becomes unreasonable in relation to digital solutions that are being constantly used. Subsidiary dependence of regions can elucidate the shortest terms of contract execution (during the federal project implementation, the average declared term of execution of a contract concluded on behalf of regional, federal authorities and budgetary institutions is 7.5, 9 and 9.4 months, respectively. The possible consequences of such conditions include a high burden on contract executors and an increased probability of delays in their execution. The process of implementing digital healthcare projects can be complicated by the incomparability of contract prices, indicating their scale, and execution terms.