Replace an Old Functioning Information System with a New One: What Does it Take?

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Author(s): Hans Kyhlback (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden)and Berthel Sutter (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden)
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 14
Source title: Handbook of Research on Advances in Health Informatics and Electronic Healthcare Applications: Global Adoption and Impact of Information Communication Technologies
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Khalil Khoumbati (University of Sindh, Pakistan), Yogesh K. Dwivedi (Swansea University, UK), Aradhana Srivastava (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), India)and Banita Lal (Nottingham Trent University, UK)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-030-1.ch019

Keywords: Health Information Systems / Medical Information Science Reference / Medicine & Healthcare

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Abstract

This chapter addresses a problem that is often experienced when ICT systems are being implemented in a work practice. Posed as a question, it might be formulated like this: What does it take to replace an old functioning information system with a new one? Findings are grounded on a long-term case study at a community elder care. This chapter used the Development Work Research (DWR) approach that is an interventionist methodology comprising ethnography as well as design experiment. During the case study, a new digital case book for the community wound care was developed. However, as it turned out, the nurses´ established practice favored the old-fashioned mobile information system. First conclusion of this chapter is that an old-fashioned information system within health care work will not successfully be replaced by a new one, unless the new is better “as a whole”, that is, better supports work practices of a range of occupational and professional workers. Second conclusion is that when designing information system for the public sector, system designers will almost always face dilemmas based on a contradiction between central, high level interest and local level work-practice perspectives. The third conclusion is that in order to succeed in the design of new information and communication system, the distinctive features of the work activities in question have to be delineated by ethnographic studies, and taken into consideration in the design process.

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Replace an Old Functioning Information System with a New One: What Does it Take?

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