From Policy to Operation: Exploring the Drivers and Success Factors of
AI-enabled Medical Drone Adoption in Public Healthcare Supply Chain
Abstract
The rise of AI is viewed as the next important technology in human
history that would serve as a driver for sustainable development.
Accordingly, several organizations have incorporated AI into their
operations – including healthcare, hence, attracting extant literature
to AI discussions. However, AI literature in healthcare has focused on
medical diagnosis, operations, and prescriptions – to the neglect of
supply chain (SC). This study bridges this knowledge gap by exploring
the drivers and success factors of AI-enabled medical drones’ adoption
in public healthcare SC. Drawing on data from the world’s largest
medical drone programme in Ghana, we find that the need to make the
public healthcare SC efficient with the aim of improving the
socio-economic life of the citizens is the main driver of the policy
adoption. Several success factors are identified and categorized into
three phases – policy, project, and operation. Long-term policy and
operating sustainability are delineated.