Abstract
Emerging technology requires participating members to intensely collaborate in fundamentally novel ways. This participation includes established and start-up firms, health professionals, standards bodies, regulatory agencies, and of course, patients. But how to design, implement, and manage emerging technology that cuts across shifting zones? With firm and global boundaries increasingly blurred, uneven regulatory treatment, and evolving standards, how can ecosystem partners collaborate to mitigate the risks to consumers as their data becomes ever more precise and identifiable? This chapter explores the relationships and decisions that ecosystem partners must collaboratively take together in the context of precision medicine and the challenges of working effectively – and ethically - with consumers.
TopBackground
What do we mean by innovative ecosystems? Broadly defined, innovative ecosystems are collaborative arrangements that allow firms to combine offerings into a customer-facing solution (Adner, 2006). Usually made up of diverse stakeholders, innovative ecosystems use technology to enable development (Jackson, 2011; Oh, Phillips, Park, & Lee, 2016). In addition to technology, innovative ecosystems can include new products, business models, behavioral changes, and policies (Gong, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ecosystem Governance: The way an ecosystem is controlled by the partners who run it.
Health Information Technology: The information technology used by healthcare providers to manage patient data
Innovative Ecosystem: An interconnected network of entities that work cooperatively and competitively to develop new products and services, usually using technology to a large degree
Minimum Viable Ecosystem: A working prototype of the final value proposition
Interoperability: The degree that defined data is understood and used by multiple and different entities who read it.
Governance: The way that companies and entities are controlled by the people who run them.
Precision Medicine Ecosystem: A group of entities who agree to collaborate to create a value proposition for personalized medicine.
Precision Medicine: Targeted treatment prescribed for a patient that looks at their genetics, lifestyle, and environment