Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in Indian Healthcare Industry-A case study from a hospital.

Abstract: Purpose: Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology and is a technological paradigm that is revolutionizing the healthcare industry all over the world. The purpose of our thesis is to investigate the phenomenon of IoT adoption in the healthcare industry in the context of a developing country to find out the barriers and how the industry is trying to overcome them. As the second highest population with a landmark of topping the table of developing country list, India has significant potential to bring interest in the IoT adoption in healthcare. Our unit of analysis is a hospital in India. Method: To reach our research, we have chosen a qualitative research approach and systematic combining method as our research strategy, which will facilitate us to narrow down the findings of the phenomenon by using a back and forth process. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with participants of the case hospital as part of the data collection process. Finding and Analysis: The first part of the empirical finding is analyzed by the thematic analysis tool, which we have used for the data analysis. This enabled us to interpret the themes in our own way going back to data collected and previous literature references. The study helped us identify some of the main factors affecting IoT adoption in the hospital, categorized under three different sections: technological, organizational, and environmental. The findings indicate that IoT adoption barriers in hospital are categorized as per our tentative framework with theoretical frame reference in the literature review part. Adoption challenges were found mainly centred on technological acceptance, complexity, organizational behaviour, lack of expertise and infrastructure, lack of stringent regulations and standard and finally, the security and privacy concerns. They have initiated a well organizational structure with experts, providing rigorous training for key staff and visionary leadership to facilitate the adoption process.