Putting Interoperability on Health-information-systems’ Implementation Agenda

The increasing demand of past patient medical information at the point of care, creates new data sharing and exchange demands on health information systems (HIS). However, a number of existing HIS have data exchange challenges given that they are ordinarily designed as vertical silos without interoperability obligations. Yet, to have data exchange within HIS and across health facilities, participating systems ought to be interoperable. However, interoperability is usually not considered a key design requirement during HIS implementations. Therefore, relying on exceptional existing practices to create benchmark design knowledge, the author employs a sense making perspective to analyze how HIS implementers arrive at their interoperability design requirements. Through this approach, an initial set of interoperability design prerequisites for purposively designing HIS’ interoperability is proposed. These include: knowing who, knowing what, knowing how and knowing which. A further study implication is the use of a sense-making perspective in exploring system design requirements

Managing as Designing: Transforming Digital Healthcare Interoperability

Digital healthcare transformations promise improved overall quality healthcare and patient continued care among others. However, quality healthcare and continued patient care can be hampered by various challenges including insufficient collaboration among healthcare centers, and limited data exchanges between health information systems (HIS). Such challenges can be overcome through collaborative digital healthcare initiatives in which, HIS are designed with data exchange capabilities that enable healthcare centers to easily exchange patient information across boundaries. However, several existing initiatives are carried out in isolation, and there is limited practical knowledge on how to collaboratively manage and design HIS’ interoperability. Consequently, this study investigated a managing as designing (MaD) approach taken by a successful HIS interoperability initiative in Sweden. Data was collected mainly through interviews with key informants within the implementation team. Based on study findings, a MaD HIS-interoperability conceptual framework that can guide the management and design of future HIS’ interoperability was developed

A conceptual IT governance framework to guide the development of interoperable health information systems

In light of changing health needs, health information systems are presented with a plethora of challenges. For instance, the rise of COVID-19 in the past year has led to the discourse on the strength of current health systems to support health needs and the readiness for the National Health Insurance in South Africa. In addition to operating in resource-constrained environments, the lack of synchrony between health information systems across health facilities led to the fragmentation of health information and diminished access to quality healthcare. This research, following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) process, developed an IT governance conceptual framework (HISIG-CF), to inform the interoperability of health information systems. The HISIG-CF is developed from literature and qualitative data collected using an expert reviews method from practitioners in the healthcare sector who evaluated the constructs of the HISIG-CF. Thematic analysis and hermeneutics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results revealed a need for more guidance to inform interoperability interventions and strengthen current health information systems. The contribution of this study is the HISIG-CF which is deemed relevant and potentially fit-for-purpose to improve health information systems interoperability within the healthcare sector in South Africa.Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Department of Information Systems, 202

A conceptual IT governance framework to guide the development of interoperable health information systems

In light of changing health needs, health information systems are presented with a plethora of challenges. For instance, the rise of COVID-19 in the past year has led to the discourse on the strength of current health systems to support health needs and the readiness for the National Health Insurance in South Africa. In addition to operating in resource-constrained environments, the lack of synchrony between health information systems across health facilities led to the fragmentation of health information and diminished access to quality healthcare. This research, following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) process, developed an IT governance conceptual framework (HISIG-CF), to inform the interoperability of health information systems. The HISIG-CF is developed from literature and qualitative data collected using an expert reviews method from practitioners in the healthcare sector who evaluated the constructs of the HISIG-CF. Thematic analysis and hermeneutics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results revealed a need for more guidance to inform interoperability interventions and strengthen current health information systems. The contribution of this study is the HISIG-CF which is deemed relevant and potentially fit-for-purpose to improve health information systems interoperability within the healthcare sector in South Africa.Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Department of Information Systems, 202