Patient-Centric Innovation: A Roadmap to Transforming Healthcare Systems

Consumer demands for personalized, patient-centric healthcare, combined with
\nresource scarcity, pressure healthcare decision-makers to improve clinical and operational
\nprocesses and accelerate digital transformation (Philips, 2021). To innovate and expand
\nhealth services, hospitals and healthcare providers recognize the need to extend their limited
\nresources, leading to the growing importance of unbound care models. These models, which
\nintegrate diverse services into patients’ everyday lives, are increasingly viewed as pivotal to
\nthe digital transformation of continuous healthcare delivery (Gandhi et al., 2024). To enable
\nsuch continuous care, healthcare providers are pursuing entrepreneurial ecosystems through
\nmergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and alliances (Clark et al., 2022). The growth of more
\nsophisticated digital healthcare also contributes to this trend, with digital fitness and
\nwellbeing, digital treatment and care, and online doctor consultation technologies projected to
\npush global revenues to US$ 180.68 billion by 2029 (Statista, 2024). Advocates for these
\ninnovative models emphasize partnerships and collaborative networks as essential for
\nbuilding a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system, ultimately improving patients’
\nquality of life. However, despite 85% of pharma executives acknowledging the importance of
\npartnerships, over 60% report high failure rates (Solbach et al. 2024). A recent report by
\nResearch2Guidance identified the lack of clear partnership strategy as the top reason behind
\npartnership failures, with 55% of surveyed executives citing this as a problem (Jahns, 2023).
\nWhile marketing literature offers some guidance on structuring collaborative
\nnetworks—integrating diverse services into consumers’ everyday lives and journeys—it falls
\nshort of providing a comprehensive framework for forming, navigating, and managing such
\nnetworks within healthcare partnerships. Existing research on patient-centric networks and
\necosystems focuses on consumer journeys that enable individuals to engage with service
\nproviders catering to various needs through the principles of value co-creation (Gallan et al.,
\n2019; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2016; Vargo et al., 2017). Yet,
\ncontemporary health services tend to view individuals primarily through the lens of biological
\nneeds and the health–disease spectrum, making them very intervention-focused and
\nfragmented (El Khoudary et al., 2019; Patricio et al., 2020).
\nHealthcare partnership strategy needs to take a more holistic view of an individual,
\nincluding the health–disease spectrum, daily experiences, social connections, overall outlook
\non life, and emotional wellbeing. This approach allows for a richer tapestry of connected
\nsolutions that can engage patients and specialists. Successful engagement leading to
\nimproved health outcomes is likely to drive successful collaborations and networks. To drive change and support patient-centric innovation, we present two case studies from Denmark
\nand the USA that demonstrate how networks supporting holistic, patient-centric health
\njourneys can be formed to deliver value. We then propose a roadmap to facilitate network and
\necosystem building, providing recommendations on how to support the creation of
\nsustainable healthcare partnerships and networks.