Mapping the Health 4.0 Landscape: Global Trends and Governance Challenges for Health Policy and Management
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: The emergence of Health 4.0 signals not only a technological revolution but also a political and managerial transformation in healthcare. This study maps the evolution of the Health 4.0 literature, identifying thematic clusters and global asymmetries, and discussing their implications for health policy, planning, and management. Using scientometric analysis, network analysis, and Structural Topic Modelling (STM) on a dataset of 307 articles, the results reveal a rapidly consolidating field structured around themes such as data security, AI, IoT, telemedicine, and health crisis management. Developing countries, particularly India, China, and Brazil, play a leading role in scientific production, but continue to face structural limitations that hinder effective implementation. Our findings highlight that beyond technical integration, Health 4.0 requires robust governance frameworks to address issues of data sovereignty, digital inequality, and workforce readiness. The study contributes to the debate on how health systems can strategically adopt Industry 4.0 technologies while safeguarding equity, accountability, and sustainability.
Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4413411540