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Digital transformation is one of the key concepts attached to the smart cities’ domain. The requirement to enhance strategically the way that business is delivered around different areas is a critical milestone for the digital transformation agenda and also for business performance management. In this short position chapter, we are focusing on the area of healthcare and we are providing key insights and lessons learned from Saudi Arabia. The main contribution of the chapter is a structured discussion on a digital healthcare strategy in the context of smart cities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework along with underlying propositions for the design and deployment of telemedicine projects which provide healthcare organizations with strategic benefits.

Field research conducted at four healthcare organizations along with academic literature in the areas of telemedicine and process management form the basis for the conceptual framework and propositions provided in this paper.

Telemedicine can be used as a process enabler for enhanced healthcare‐delivery systems. However, there are several challenges which must be considered prior to its implementation. The framework and propositions provided in the paper can be used to facilitate successful telemedicine project deployments.

The framework and propositions are derived from a small sample and must be validated through more rigorous empirical research studies.

The concepts presented in the paper can be used by healthcare planners to increase the likelihood of telemedicine deployment success within their organizations.

This paper begins to fill a void in the literature concerning how telemedicine can be used as a process enabler for improving healthcare‐delivery systems.

Drawing broadly from the technology frame (Davidson, 2002) and organizing vision perspectives (Swanson and Ramiller, 1997) which consider the business value of information technology as resulting from actors' efforts to make sense of new technology, the study applies Ojala's (2016) business model framework to examine how different sets of actors understand the value of blockchain within the healthcare sector.

To include the perspective of different sets of actors, the research combines a systematic literature review to capture academic research, semi-structured interviews with blockchain experts, with an analysis of blockchain healthcare vendors.

The study finds a high degree of congruence between the perspective of different actors, with key sources of blockchain value concentrated around value proposition, particularly enhancing privacy and security; value capture, specifically cost savings, and value network, mostly enhancing data accessibility and reducing intermediation. Value delivery is the least emphasized value creation mechanism and concerns primarily improvements in supply chain transparency. Minor variations between actors' interpretations of value exist, mostly around the contribution of blockchain to support the value proposition and include the provision of social value, the creation of trust, supporting automation and improving employment.

Recognizing that the value of new technology is as much the result of actors' interpretations, as the objective outcome of its deployment, this study takes a multi-stakeholder perspective to examine blockchain's business value and highlights new aspects of value associated with blockchain deployments. The findings include a value outcome framework that allows systematic comparisons between blockchain implementations across contexts.

Healthcare education is a huge industry with a significant social footprint and resilient impact on well-being and on the quality of life. It integrates diverse scientific domains and needs to continuously update its value proposition to reflect the need for preparing top-quality health professionals. It also has to support professional development and to manage effectively the accreditation of programs and the certification of skills and knowledge. In this chapter, the authors expand a theoretical framework about Active and Transformative Learning (ATL) that has introduced in the volume of ATL for STEAM disciplines and also discussed how artificial intelligent (AI) tools, such as OPENAI Chat GPT, can serve as transformers and value carriers for the implementation of ATL activities and use cases in healthcare education.

Quality and value are currently convergent concepts in healthcare. The importance of patients as customers has increased the focus on quality management and value delivery. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Rotorua is a specialist hospital for rheumatic disease and rehabilitation. It has a clear mission for the delivery of customer quality and in fulfilling this mission uses a holistic approach (a value chain approach) to customer care. The value chain study of QEH’s product/service delivery has enabled medical, medical support staff and management to review both value delivery quality and delivery methods. The study explored the QEH value chain organisation and process structures and has identified questions concerning healthcare delivery and alternative methods for achieving current results and the future direction of the organisation. Value chain analysis encourages an intra‐ and inter‐organisational review of resource application and identifies alternative methods and structures for meeting objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of conflict and conflict resolution on employee perceptions of unit social capital. The paper aims to test the overarching proposition that social capital is affected by different types of conflict and by organizational methods used to manage them.

The paper's hypotheses were tested using survey data collected as part of a case study conducted in a large Ohio hospital that had adopted a conflict management system. Survey data from 791 hospital employees were used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between conflict and its management and social capital.

Analysis of the data supports the paper's proposition that different forms of conflict affect perceptions of social capital differently. Relationship and task conflict were significantly and negatively related to employee perceptions of social capital. Conflict regarding patient care issues, on the other hand, was significantly and positively related to employee perceptions of social capital. Results support the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of conflict management on social capital. In addition to directly increasing perceptions of social capital, one of the conflict management options examined (supervisor‐assisted) moderated the relationship between relationship and task conflict and social capital.

The research implies that organizational conflict affects social capital. More importantly, different forms of conflict affect social capital in different ways. Furthermore, the findings imply that organizational management of conflict plays an important role in increasing perceptions of social capital. Shortcomings include the use of cross‐sectional data and the generalizability of findings from one hospital to other settings.

The findings suggest that an organization's approach to conflict and conflict management will affect perceived levels of social capital. In addition, organizations must be nuanced in the way they manage and resolve different types of conflict. Finally, findings suggest that supervisors play an important role in increasing unit social capital by assisting employees in resolving conflict.

The paper provides one of the first empirical examinations of the relationship between conflict, conflict resolution and social capital.

Worldwide, healthcare systems struggle to sustain the delivery of services at a time of increasing demand, limited resources and growing expectations from users, coupled with dealing with the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of other outbreaks. There has never been a more important time to sustain innovation and improvements. Using an illustrative case, the authors assess the application of two existing frameworks to identify the key propositions and dimensions required to deliver sustainable services.

This illustrative case study focuses on a service provided by a chronic disease, multidisciplinary community healthcare team in the UK. Experienced-based interviews were conducted with health professionals, patients and relatives to provide a rich account of a care pathway design. A high-level process map is used to visualise the key touch points.

The authors identify all seven propositions of the SERVICE framework being present along with additional dimensions relating to sustaining innovation and improvement.

This research is limited to a chronic disease care pathway. However, the authors believe the results could be applicable to other medical conditions, which are supported by a similar multi-disciplinary service delivery model.

The authors provide a sustainable public service operations SERVICES framework for health professionals and managers to consider when (re)designing care pathways.

This research contributes to the emerging discipline of public service operations research by empirically testing for the first time the SERVICE framework within healthcare. The authors have included additional factors associated with innovation and improvement and recommended further development of the framework to include factors, such as economic sustainability, highly relevant to the context of universal healthcare systems.

This study investigates the pathways for adopting IoTs and BDA technologies to improve healthcare management.

The study relied on 445 healthcare professionals' perspectives to explore different causal pathways to IoTs and BDA adoption and usage for daily healthcare management. The Fussy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis was adopted to explore the underlying pathways for healthcare management.

The empirical analysis revealed six different configural paths influencing the acceptance and use of IoTs and BDA for healthcare improvement. Two key user topologies from the six configural paths, digital literacy and ease of use and social influence and behavioural intentions, mostly affect the paths for using digital health technologies by healthcare physicians.

Despite this study's novel contributions, limitations include the fsQCA methodology, perceptual data and the context of the study. The fsQCA methodology is still evolving with different interpretations, although it reveals new insights and as such further studies are required to explain the configural paths of social phenomena. Additionally, future research should consider other constructs beyond the UTAUT and digital literacy to illustrate configural paths to healthcare technology acceptance and usage. Again, the views of healthcare professionals are perceptual data. Hence future research on operational data will support significant contributions towards pathways to accept and use emerging technologies for healthcare improvement. Lastly, this study is from a developing country perspective where emerging digital healthcare technology is still emerging to support healthcare management. Hence, more investigation from other cross-country analyses of configural paths for digital technology deployment in healthcare will enhance the conversation with IoTs and BDA for healthcare management.

Holistically, the acceptance and use of healthcare technologies and platforms is not solely on their capabilities, but a combination of distinct factors driven by users' perspectives. This offers healthcare administrators and institutions to essentially reflect on the distinct combinations of conditions favourable to health professionals who can use IoTs and BDA for healthcare improvement.

This study is among the few scholarly works to empirically investigate the configural paths to support healthcare improvement with emerging technologies. Using fsQCA is a unique contribution to existing information system literature for configural paths for healthcare improvement with emerging digital technologies.

This study aims to explore the rise of virtual specialty care startups and understand how the ventures leverage digital services to create a new market space. Given the high level of competition in an established industry like health care, the authors investigate the business models and competitive strategies of leading virtual specialty care startups with unicorn status (i.e. emerging, current and exited unicorns).

The authors performed an analysis of Crunchbase data to examine whether rising virtual care ventures target specialty care. They focused on companies from the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The identified virtual specialty care ventures were investigated in-depth via a multiple case study. By reviewing corporate websites, Crunchbase data and media coverage, the authors analyzed the ventures’ business models and competitive strategies.

This study demonstrates that even in established and highly competitive markets such as health care, managers and entrepreneurs can still leverage digital services to unlock new market spaces. The data analysis reveals that virtual care startups target the field of specialty care. They create a new market space by focusing on fast access to services, personalization, measurable outcomes and affordability. The majority of investigated companies pursues a platform-based business model approach.

In the context of an established industry like health care, this study gives insights into a new generation of virtual specialty care ventures. By investigating the ventures’ business models and competitive strategies, the authors advance a young field of research.