Service System Platforms to improve value co-creation: insights for Translational Medicine

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to analyze how service system platforms can facilitate the value cocreation processes in healthcare context and then to foster the development of new compounds of medical protocols and/or treatments to improve patient’s quality of life (Polese, Capunzo, 2013) according to the translational medicine purposes. We investigated how technological, interconnected, and smart solutions can facilitate the information-sharing processes by enabling researchers, clinicians, industries and patients to interact without the constraints of time, place and space by organizing data and information. Design/Methodology/approach – The work is developed by integrating and applying the theoretical perspectives of Service Science (Maglio, Sphorer, 2008) and Service-Dominant logic (Vargo, Lusch, 2008) to the paradigm of translational medicine. Findings – Translational medicine is a rapidly growing discipline in biomedical and public health research that aims to improve the health of individuals and the community by "translating" findings into diagnostic tools, medicines, procedures, policies and education, using a multi-disciplinary, highly collaborative, "bench-to-bedside" approach (Abraham et al. 2012; Stephen, 2008). It contributes to create value not only for the patient, but also for all involved actors such as clinicians, academic researchers, pharmaceutical industries, investors (Littman et al., 2007). In this sense, according to the Service-Dominant logic approach, service systems platforms could be useful to complete the value co-creation process in the translational medicine systems Research limitations/implications –The work could be a first conceptual step for future researches on service science contributes to the underpinning of translational medicine paradigm. One of the lacks is in the conceptual identification of the findings; the concepts have to be deepened in the future with specific case studies. Practical implications – For practitioners, the study offers advices on how improve rapidity, efficiency and effectiveness of translational medicine processes by highlighting the role of service systems able to sustain systemic integration, information and knowledge sharing and effective communication among the involved actors (Mele, Polese, 2011). Originality/value – In this work the principles of S-D logic and Service Science are integrated in order to find new theoretical implications and new meanings to the value creation process in the translational medicine paradigm as synthesis of the multiplicity of generated values meanings and value co-creation