Digital technologies are reshaping healthcare. Tools like remote patient monitoring, AI-based diagnosis, and health apps promise better patient care at lower costs. Yet introducing these innovations is far from straightforward. In healthcare, even the best technology can fail if it doesn’t gain acceptance from doctors, insurers, and regulators.
Getting everyone on board is as important as the technology itself.
In our research (Randhawa et al., 2024), we uncovered how technology providers succeed when they shift their focus: it’s not just about selling a product — it’s about building a system of trust across the healthcare landscape. Success depends on convincing a whole ecosystem that the new technology is safe, valuable, and fits into their daily work.
The real barrier isn’t technology — it’s trust
Innovators often assume that great technology sells itself. But in healthcare, change can feel threatening. Doctors may worry that a new AI tool undermines their expertise. Hospitals may fear workflow disruptions. Insurers may question if new devices justify their costs. Regulators are cautious about patient safety.
Without broad support, even proven digital tools face slow adoption. We’ve seen cases where remote monitoring devices, despite clear benefits for patients, were ignored simply because doctors worried they would lose income from fewer in-clinic visits. Technology alone wasn’t enough to change behaviors or rules.
Two powerful strategies for building acceptance
In our study we explore how successful tech providers use two key approaches: solution selling and issue selling.
- Solution selling means working closely with customers (like hospitals and clinics) to show how the technology fits into their work, solves real problems, and delivers practical value. It’s about proving the device or software is useful, safe, and easy to implement.
- Issue selling goes one step further. It’s about addressing broader doubts, fears, or misconceptions. This includes reassuring healthcare providers, but also persuading regulators, winning over insurers, and convincing professional bodies. It’s not just selling a device—it’s selling the idea that the new way of working is better for everyone.
Together, these approaches don’t just get a sale; they build lasting trust across the whole healthcare system.
Solution selling: co-creating value with customers
Companies that succeed don’t pitch products in isolation. Instead, they involve healthcare professionals early and often.
For example, one technology company developed a smartphone app that turns a regular phone into a heart-monitoring device. Instead of simply presenting it to hospitals, they engaged cardiologists, IT specialists, and administrators to refine the solution. Together, they adjusted features, adapted workflows, and ensured the app fit doctors’ needs.
Pilot programs were key. Companies ran small-scale trials, collected feedback, and made improvements. Hospitals appreciated being part of the design process, which built confidence and ownership among doctors and nurses.
Another company working on AI for radiology built “working groups” with dozens of radiologists, using their feedback to perfect diagnostic tools. Regular meetings, hands-on demos, and real-life case studies replaced abstract pitches. This practical collaboration created solutions that not only worked better but were genuinely welcomed by users.
Issue selling: winning hearts and minds across the ecosystem
Beyond solving practical problems, innovators must tackle deeper doubts. Even a flawless product can be blocked if stakeholders worry about professional identity, financial impact, or safety.
Companies used three smart moves:
- Educating professionals: Doctors were often unfamiliar with the new technology. Companies invested in “clinician academies” to train doctors not just on how to use the tech, but how it could complement—not replace—their expertise. For instance, they showed how AI could assist in diagnosis, helping doctors work faster and with greater confidence, rather than threatening their authority.
- Building credibility: Winning over respected institutions made a huge difference. When a device received approval from a leading medical society or was tested in a top hospital, trust grew fast. Partnerships with well-known universities, patient groups, and even insurers sent strong signals that the technology was credible and safe.
- Shaping the bigger conversation: Some companies even worked with regulators and standard-setting bodies to ensure the new technology would be included in future medical guidelines. Others built coalitions across hospitals, patient advocacy groups, and insurers to promote the broader benefits of digital health — like affordability, accessibility, and better patient outcomes.
Through these efforts, the technology stopped being “their” product and started being “our” solution, championed by the broader healthcare community.
Why you need an ecosystem, not just customers
One major lesson from our study is that companies can’t succeed alone. Digital healthcare innovation is a team sport.
Rather than just targeting a single customer, winning companies worked to create an ecosystem — a network of hospitals, insurers, regulators, tech partners, and advocacy groups all supporting the innovation.
In one case, a group of 28 hospitals joined forces with a digital health provider to standardize new patient data systems across their network. In another, insurance companies, hospitals, and tech firms collaborated to promote remote patient monitoring, knowing it would ultimately lower costs for everyone.
This outside-out dynamic means that innovation spreads not because one organization adopts it, but because a network of stakeholders sees shared value and moves together.
Practical steps for technology providers and healthcare leaders
If you’re a technology provider, or a healthcare leader considering new digital solutions, here are key actions based on our findings:
- Engage early and often: Don’t wait until a product is “finished.” Involve healthcare professionals, IT teams, and administrators in shaping the solution from the start.
- Pilot, learn, adapt: Small trials and rapid feedback loops build trust and improve the product. Treat customers as co-designers.
- Educate with empathy: Understand doctors’ and nurses’ fears and concerns. Frame new technologies as empowering, not replacing, their expertise.
- Build coalitions: Partner with trusted institutions, advocacy groups, and regulators. Their endorsement carries more weight than any sales pitch.
- Think beyond direct customers: Remember that payers, policymakers, and professional societies often influence adoption more than end users.
The future: making digital healthcare innovation stick
Bringing digital technologies into healthcare isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a social, political, and emotional one. Providers must move beyond selling products to orchestrating ecosystems — a shift that will also fundamentally change how meditech companies approach their product development, sales and marketing strategies.
Winning in digital healthcare innovation means not just asking, “Is the technology ready?” but asking, “Is the system ready?” By working with stakeholders across the healthcare landscape — and by focusing as much on trust as on technology — innovators can finally unlock the full potential of digital health.
Success belongs to those who build solutions that fit into lives, systems, and institutions — not just to those who invent brilliant new gadgets.
Read the original article:
This guest post was written by Wim Vanhaverbeke, based on an article in California Management Review authored by Wim Vanhaverbeke, Krithika Randhawa, and Paavo Ritala:
Randhawa, K., Vanhaverbeke, W., & Ritala, P. (2024). Legitimizing Digital Technologies in Open Innovation Ecosystems: Overcoming Adoption Barriers in Healthcare. California Management Review, 67(1), 45-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256241276553
