Vasiliki Mantzana

Healthcare information systems research, revelations and visions

European Journal of Information Systems(2007) 16, 669–671.doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000712Information technology (IT) is no longer perceived as just a supportingtool, but has become a strategic necessity for developing an integratedhealthcare IT infrastructure that can improve services and reduce medicalerrors (Mantzana et al., 2007). Correspondingly, IT investments in thehealth sector have increased dramatically (Carpenter, 2005) and areexpected to rise further over the near term (HIMSS Analytics, 2007).Yet the current focus on IT infrastructure describes only part of thetransformation of healthcare information systems (HIS) that will benecessary to achieve service quality goals. It has long been accepted inthe information systems (IS) discipline that effective developmentcombines understanding of the people who use it and the processesthrough which organizations apply IT, as well as the IT infrastructure itself.Because of this multi-faceted perspective, we propose that IS researcherswill be able to contribute to future advances in HIS in a number of waysthat transcend a simplistic focus on technology.The objective of this special issue is to demonstrate how the IS disciplinecan aid in shaping the future of HIS through empirical and theoreticalresearch. Healthcare organizations face multiple future hurdles that ISresearchers are well-equipped to study (Wilson & Lankton, 2004; Chiassonet al., 2007). Prominent among these hurdles are: applying IT to improvethe quality of healthcare processes and reduce medical errors; developinge-services to connect healthcare stakeholders, including government,insurers, healthcare administrators, clinical staff, and patients; identifyingobstacles to acceptance and continued use of HIS; adapting user-centereddesign principles to healthcare settings; assessing financial and otherorganizational impacts of IT in healthcare; and managing HIS effectively.In addition, the healthcare sector provides a largely unexplored settingfor IS researchers to develop, refine, and extend IS theories. Recent reviewsof the IS literature suggest there are substantial opportunities for new HISresearch. Chiasson & Davidson (2004) reviewed 17 leading IS journals from1985 to 2003 to identify contributions to HIS research, finding a total of165 papers. As presented in Table 1, Cho (2007) has updated their review toinclude the period from 2004 to 2006.Chiasson & Davidson (2004) established four categories to organizepublished HIS studies based on how IS theory and the healthcare contextwere addressed. IS-Only papers focus on generalizable theory withoutspecific consideration of the healthcare context. IS theories may beapplied, but these papers do not explore how the healthcare context mightinfluence theoretical constructs or assumptions. Healthcare-Only papersfocus on describing the design, development, implementation, and use ofinformation-intensive technologies in healthcare without significantapplication of IS theories. IS-Healthcare papers primarily focus on develop-ing or testing IS theories with secondary consideration given to interac-tions with the healthcare context. Healthcare-IS papers more systematicallyconsider the influence of context by applying IS theory to analyze

A Method for the Identification of Actors Involved in the Adoption of Innovations in Healthcare Organizations

The adoption of innovations in the area of healthcare is a slow and problematic process. Many categories of actors with different interests are involved in the adoption process, and influence it. Thus, it has been suggested that human (e.g. actors), technical and organizational factors should be considered, to support the adoption of innovations. Nevertheless, limited literature has focused on the actors involved in this process and this has rarely been addressed empirically and practically. Moreover, there is a lack of methods that define and identify these actors. This paper seeks to (a) highlight the importance of actors involved in the adoption process, (b) define them, (c) provide a method for healthcare actors’ identification and (d) evaluate the proposed definition and method in the practical arena. The proposed approach is novel as it (a) addresses the uncertainties related to the actors in a healthcare setting during the adoption, (b) enhances existing adoption models, (c) facilitates healthcare organizations in making robust decisions and (d) might provide guidance to increase adoption.