Special Session 26

E-health is an emerging field at the intersection of medical informatics, public health, and business. It offers a new way of working and a commitment to networked activities to improve healthcare using digital and cognitive technology, Artificial Intelligence, Extended reality, etc..
In the e-health business, the demand for AI-based Solutions is rising. There is a great variety (i.e., Telemedicine, electronic health records, Digital Therapeutics, Smart Pills; etc.) and their fields of application is widening. This variety prompts scholars and experts to question their role and integration into the healthcare ecosystem. The focus is on the perceptions of the main actors - patients, (in)formal caregivers, healthcare professionals - for a fuller perspective to understand how they negotiate and integrate new knowledge, practices and material arrangements.
AI-based solutions seem to promise to transform people’s lives by providing new ways to exchange real data and information, customizing e-health service offerings according to patients’ specific needs, engaging actors and extending opportunities to maximize collaboration. A new texture of value co-creation practices develops in the evolving ecology of service systems as responsible actors learn to invest wisely and systematically in the future of e-health digital solutions.

The list of topics includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Impact of AI-based solutions on healthcare ecosystem;
• Digital Therapeutics;
• Service/Social robots in e-health;
• Engagement of actors (i.e., doctors, patients, caregivers, familiars);
• Concerns on privacy and security in AI-based solutions in e-health;
• Business model and/or Value propositions related to AI-based solutions in e-health;
• Impact of AI-based solutions in drug companies’ market;
• Value co-creation related to AI-based solutions in e-health;
• Assessment of Wellbeing;
• Reimbursement of AI-based solutions in e-health and Place in Therapy.

Cristina Mele, (PhD) is Full Professor of Service Innovation and the coordinator of the PhD in Management at the Department of Economics, Management and Institutions, University of Naples Federico II. She is delegated of Innovation and Third Mission at University of Naples “Federico II”. Her main research interests are innovation and smart technologies, value creation, markets and service ecosystems. She has more than 220 publications. Her articles have appeared in leading international journals, including Journal of The Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Theory, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Service Theory and Practice and Managing Service Quality. Cristina is one of co-chairs of The Naples Forum on Service. She is on the editorial Review Board of Journal of Service Theory and Practice and The AMS review. She is an ISSIP ambassador (International Society of Service Innovation Professionals). She received the S-D logic Award (2019).

Tiziana Russo Spena, is an Associate professor of Management at the University of Naples Federico II. She received her Ph.D. in Management and Economics in 2002. He is the elected Member of European Research Network on Services (Reser) and Member of the Board of Director of Center for innovation and development of the Agri-food industry-Federico II University of Naples. She has been involved as local unit coordinator of many scientific projects on innovation and technology transfer. Her main areas of interest are service innovation and digital transformation. She has co-authored over 100 refereed articles in journals and six books on innovation topics. She is also promoter and coordinator of Associations and companies to promote technology culture and transfer as I.B.N.O. (Italian Blockchain National Observatory (https://www.ibno.eu) and E.D.I. Innovative Start-up.

Jim Spohrer, is a student of service science and open-source, trusted AI. He is a retired IBM executive, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP). At IBM, he served as Director for Open Source AI/Data, Global University Programs, IBM Almaden Service Research, and CTO IBM Venture Capital Relations Group. At Apple, he achieved Distinguished Engineer Scientist Technologist (DEST) for authoring and learning platforms. After MIT (BS/Physics), he developed speech recognition systems at Verbex (Exxon), then Yale (PhD/Computer Science AI). With over ninety publications and nine patents, awards include AMA ServSIG Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Service Discipline, Evert Gummesson Service Research, Vargo-Lusch Service-Dominant Logic, Daniel Berg Service Systems, and PICMET Fellow for advancing service science. In 2021, Jim was appointed a UIDP Senior Fellow (University-Industry Demonstration Partnership).

Dr Mauro Gatti, is an Architect and Data Scientist at IBM Italy. He received the PhD in Physics at the Università Statale di Milano. His research interests are focused on the application of AI, notably Natural Language Processing, to healthcare and education.

Andrea Ruggiero, is a PhD student in Management at the Department of Economics, Management and Institutions, University of Naples Federico II. His innovative PhD is in collaboration with Maastricht University and IBM, Italy. His main research interests are service and social robots, service innovation and silver economy. His research has been published in Journal of Service Management. Currently, he is member of the Board of Directors of University of Naples Federico II, Italy.