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Wrestling With a Paradox: Complexity in Interoperability Standards Making for Healthcare Information Systems

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Book cover E-Technologies: Innovation in an Open World (MCETECH 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 26))

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Abstract

Medical interventions are often delayed or erroneous when information needed for diagnosing or prescribing is missing or unavailable. In support of increased information flows, the healthcare industry has invested substantially in standards intended to specify, routinize, and make uniform the type and format of medical information in clinical healthcare information systems such as Electronic Medical Record systems (EMRs). However, fewer than one in four Canadian physicians have adopted EMRs. Deeper analysis illustrates that physicians may perceive value in standardized EMRs when they need to exchange information in highly structured situations among like participants and like environments. However, standards present restrictive barriers to practitioners when they face equivocal situations, unforeseen contingencies, or exchange information across different environments. These barriers constitute a compelling explanation for at least part of the observed low EMR adoption rates. Our recommendations to improve the perceived value of standardized clinical information systems espouse re-conceptualizing the role of standards to embrace greater flexibility in some areas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4M4

    Jeff Pittaway & Norm Archer

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  1. Jeff Pittaway
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  2. Norm Archer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technologies de l’Information, HEC Montréal, 3000, ch. de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, H3T 2A7, Montréal, (Québec), Canada

    Gilbert Babin

  2. Institut d’informatique, Université de Neuchâtel, Rue Emile Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Peter Kropf

  3. School of Computer Science, Carleton University, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Michael Weiss

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Pittaway, J., Archer, N. (2009). Wrestling With a Paradox: Complexity in Interoperability Standards Making for Healthcare Information Systems. In: Babin, G., Kropf, P., Weiss, M. (eds) E-Technologies: Innovation in an Open World. MCETECH 2009. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 26. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01187-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01187-0_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-01186-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-01187-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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