Meta-synthesis of Technology and Innovation Foresight Models in Health and Hospital Industry Management

The importance of technology and innovation foresight in the health and hospital industry management as one of the important tools in policy intelligence is increasingly revealed. Although theoretical research and practical efforts are not very old in the area of foresight, lack of comprehensiveness of existing models highlights the necessity of integrating the issues raised.

In the present study, to achieve a comprehensive model for technology and innovation foresight in the health and hospital industry management, a systematic qualitative research method is used to systematically review the research findings in this area to explore the approaches and principles of these models after extracting the main themes. To achieve this goal, 70 articles published in electronic databases such as Emerald and Elsevier, etc. were reviewed through the Google Scholar search engine between the years 1990 and 2021. After screening, 35 articles were selected for work, open coding tools were used to analyze the articles. In the next step a descriptive analysis using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic View and Mata Analysis protocol proposed and the then developed proposition based on keywords analysis.

By reviewing 70 final articles, researchers identified 3 dimensions and 12 categories as the factors affecting the use of foresight models in health industry management with the aim of innovation and technology development. Key themes included networking among inclusive actors, comprehensiveness of foresight programs, and utilization of foresight output data in the health and hospital industry management. The main themes obtained in this study are in line with approaches to the phenomenon of technology and innovation foresight in the health and hospital industry management adopted by scientists in this area.

These main approaches include conceptualization, history and evolution, differentiation from other aspects of foresight, types of classifications (based on geography, thematic and applied orientation, and foresight generations), and types of frameworks, methods and techniques used, communication with policy-making and strategy determination.