Towards digital and hands-free healthcare: exploring value co-creation interactions in eye-tracking adoption

Purpose Eye-tracking technology offers significant potential in healthcare by enabling hands-free interactions that reduce physical contact and infection transmission risks. However, its adoption remains suboptimal due to barriers including unfavorable cost-benefit perceptions, digital literacy gaps and workflow disruption concerns. This study explores value co-creation interactions between technology providers and healthcare professionals that facilitate eye-tracking adoption in digitalized healthcare settings. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a qualitative approach drawing on exploratory and semi-structured interviews with eye-tracking technology providers and physicians who use eye-tracking in clinical practice and research. Data analysis follows a thematic analysis approach. Findings The findings reveal two distinct but interconnected dimensions of value co-creation interactions that enable eye-tracking adoption. Value co-production-enabling interactions encompass aligning technology capabilities with user needs, co-developing manuals and guidelines and collaboratively interpreting regulatory frameworks. Value-in-use-enabling interactions focus on aligning technology performance with end-user experience, co-developing implementation strategies and collaborative data interpretation and analysis. Originality/value This study contributes to healthcare digitalization literature by examining how collaborative interactions between technology providers and healthcare professionals enable complex technology adoption. Unlike previous research focusing primarily on patient-provider relationships, this study demonstrates how technology providers actively participate in healthcare value chains beyond traditional product delivery. The findings extend value co-creation theory by identifying specific interaction mechanisms within value co-production and value-in-use dimensions, contributing to understanding how collaborative approaches may support hands-free healthcare technology integration.