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Journal article

State of IS Integration in the Context of Patient-Centered Care: A Network Analysis and Research Directions

Abstract

For more than a decade, healthcare reform has emphasized coordinated “patient-centered care”. To that end, policymakers have invested in integration of healthcare providers’ information flows. Research has studied healthcare providers’ information needs but overlooked communicative exchanges among participants in coordinating treatment plan decisions. Consequently, although medical literature asserts that patients should depend on information exchange with healthcare providers to enable participation in treatment plan decisions, the assertion has not been tested. In this paper, the authors conduct an empirical study to elucidate the structure of actors’ communications in support of their information dependencies. The findings illustrate that although patients are well connected through personal contact with healthcare providers, patients are disenfranchised from integrated healthcare information systems (IS) and the potential of IS to support patients’ participation in coordinated “patient-centered care” decisions. Furthermore, knowledge asymmetry between patients and healthcare providers should be considered in the selection and design of healthcare IS.

Authors

Montazemi AR; Pittaway JJ; Keshavjee K

Journal

International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1–18

Publisher

IGI Global

Publication Date

January 1, 2011

DOI

10.4018/jhisi.2011010101

ISSN

1555-3396
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