Demographic and Economic Determinants of Digitalization in Healthcare: An Exploratory Analysis of the Italian Local Health Centers

The last few years have seen an increasing attention of academics and professionals towards the evaluation of the impact of digitization in the healthcare sector. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the potential effects and benefits of disruptive technologies on the whole healthcare system and have not focused on the analysis of the fundamental parameters at the introduction of new computerised processes within this sector. This study investigates the demographic and economic determinants of digitisation, focusing on the population of Italian ASLs. To conduct the analysis, we adopt the Tobit model. The construction of a weighted composite indicator makes it possible to measure the level of digitization of individual healthcare organisations, highlighting the critical issues present within the variables that make up the indicator. Although the results confirm our hypotheses, some critical reflections emerge regarding the digitization policies adopted. This study offers important theoretical and practical implications and enriches the current literature on the topic of digitization in healthcare.