Author(s)

Vivian Vimarlund^1,2, Craig Kuziemsky³, Christian Nøhr⁴, Pirkko Nykänen⁵, Nicolas Nikula⁶

¹International Business School, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.
²Department of Computer and Information Science/Human-Centered Systems, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
³University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
⁴Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁵University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
⁶Post-Nord, Stockholm, Sweden.

In this study we use the experiences from the service industry and explore pre-requisites of the e-health market which will need to achieve to stimulate both sides of the market (vendors, healthcare organizations, government, institutions, corporations and services organizations) to interact with each other and develop demand driven services and social innovations. The results presented in this paper may be of interest for decision makers, industries (e.g. software or technology designers), small and medium enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurs with an interest in becoming a part of the e-health market, and for consumers (e.g. healthcare personnel and patients) that are willing to influence the market through their choices. The outcomes of the study shown that the role of virtual brokers is essential to the further development of a sustainable e-health market globally because its role as catalyst for interaction between the two-sides of the markets, its effects on the reduction of competitive constrains, its effects on the accessibility to broader network of actors and its effects on the support of public-private exchanges of knowledge and experience.

Virtual Brokers, Two-Sided E-Health Market, Demand Driven Services, Social Innovations

Vimarlund, V. , Kuziemsky, C. , Nøhr, C. , Nykänen, P. and Nikula, N. (2017) Brokers as Catalysts for the E-Health Market. Intelligent Information Management, 9, 177-188. doi: 10.4236/iim.2017.95009.