Choreographing for public value in digital health?

Abstract

Entanglements between public and private entities in digital health are not new, yet we do not have full insight into how these public-private dances are choreographed or what notions of public value drive governments’ appetite for investing into or collaborating with private digital health firms around health data. We examine key events, actors, public discussions, policy deliberations and regulations for over 30 years to find that European Union policy has paved an innovation-friendly path for technology companies entering healthcare. The recent pandemic has normalized these collaborations even further. The paper also finds that conceptualizations of public value in digital health mostly relate to economic aspects – markets, jobs and money. Other interpretations, such as public health, long-term sustainability or the common good, tend to be sidelined. The paper closes by considering whether the advent of the European Health Data Space will change this trajectory before giving suggestions on how a focus on public health value can be re-established.