Healthc Inform Res.  2015 Jul;21(3):152-160. 10.4258/hir.2015.21.3.152.

Review of Social and Organizational Issues in Health Information Technology

Affiliations
  • 1Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada. Kuziemsky@telfer.uottawa.ca

Abstract


OBJECTIVES
This paper reviews organizational and social issues (OSIs) in health information technology (HIT).
METHODS
A review and synthesis of the literature on OSIs in HIT was conducted.
RESULTS
Five overarching themes with respect to OSIs in HIT were identified and discussed: scope and frameworks for defining OSIs in HIT, context matters, process immaturity and complexity, trade-offs will happen and need to be discussed openly, and means of studying OSIs in HIT.
CONCLUSIONS
There is a wide body of literature that provides insight into OSIs in HIT, even if many of the studies are not explicitly labelled as such. The two biggest research needs are more explicit and theoretical studies of OSI in HITs and more research on integrating micro and macro perspectives of HIT use in organizations.

Keyword

Organizations; Social Norms; Health Information Technology; Process Assessment (Health Care); Collaboration

MeSH Terms

Cooperative Behavior
Medical Informatics*
Models, Theoretical
Process Assessment (Health Care)

Figure

  • Figure 1 Model for upstream and downstream study of micro and macro aspects of OSIs as part of HIT implementation. OSI: organizational and social issue, HIT: health information technology.


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