The design and management of public-private eHealth partnerships

In the upcoming years, European countries will devote substantial public resources to the digital transformation of governments. To increase the probability of successful digitalization, it is important to learn from early experiences and to develop knowledge about why some projects succeed, while others fail to achieve digital transformation. This chapter takes on a practice-based view and analyzes key success factors across 19 public-private eHealth projects from five European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, and Spain). Through a qualitative analysis of interview data from 132 interviews with collaborators of the eHealth partnerships, we unravel which conditions enable collaborative eHealth projects to succeed in practice. Drawing on the theoretical framework depicted in Chapter 4, we provide evidence of the salience of features on the level of the partnership, the agency-related features at the level of the individuals and organizations involved in the partnership, the use of information and communication technology (ICT), and user involvement.