An overlooked reason why digital innovation fails: the stigmatisation of digital health innovators

Digital health innovations have shown promising outcomes for global healthcare systems, yet their implementation can be challenging and lead to non-adoption or early abandonment. There are many barriers to the spread and scaling of digital health applications, with some being less visible and less widely acknowledged. This viewpoint discusses one of these hidden factors, which is the stigmatisation of clinical healthcare professionals involved in digital innovation. It is observed that these ‘dual-role’ innovators can experience stigma from their colleagues when they engage in areas that are perceived as being outside of their professional boundaries. We highlight that the centrality to the organisation and its deviation from its professional norms can affect the extent of this stigma. We see this less visible barrier as negatively impacting future innovation. We encourage senior healthcare leaders and patient-facing professionals to identify such stigma and work collaboratively to reduce and eliminate it.