Complex? Yes! Adaptive? Well, maybe…
interactions
Hidden order: how adaptation builds complexity
Hidden order: how adaptation builds complexity
Enterprise resource planning: introduction
Communications of the ACM
Sorting things out: classification and its consequences
Sorting things out: classification and its consequences
Designing Work Oriented Infrastructures
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations
Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations
Information Technology for Development - Special issue: Information technology for health care in Mozambique
International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
Challenges in health information systems integration: zanzibar experience
ICTD'09 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development
Integrating health information systems in Sierra Leone
ICTD'09 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development
Generative mechanisms for innovation in information infrastructures
Information and Organization
How to develop an open and flexible information infrastructure for the public sector?
EGOV'10 Proceedings of the 9th IFIP WG 8.5 international conference on Electronic government
Research profiling for `standardization and innovation'
Scientometrics
International Journal of Business Information Systems
Context and the processes of ICT for development
Information and Organization
Software for national level vaccine cold chain management
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
FHIES'11 Proceedings of the First international conference on Foundations of Health Informatics Engineering and Systems
Understanding public users' adoption of mobile health service
International Journal of Mobile Communications
Scaling of HIS in a global context: Same, same, but different
Information and Organization
Drug prescription behavior and decision support systems
Decision Support Systems
International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology
Hi-index | 0.00 |
The development of appropriate integrated and scalable information systems in the health sector in developing countries has been difficult to achieve, and is likely to remain elusive in the face of continued fragmented funding of health programs, particularly related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In this article, we propose a strategy for developing information infrastructures in general and in particular for the health care sector in developing countries. We use complexity science to explain the challenges that need to be addressed, in particular the need for standards that can adapt to a changing health care environment, and propose the concept of flexible standards as a key element in a sustainable infrastructure development strategy. Drawing on case material from a number of developing countries, a case is built around the use of flexible standards as attractors, arguing that if they are well defined and simple, they will be able to adapt to the frequent changes that are experienced in the complex health environment. A number of paradoxes are highlighted as useful strategies, integrated independence being one that encourages experimentation and heterogeneity to develop and share innovative solutions while still conforming to simple standards. The article provides theoretical concepts to support standardization processes in complex systems, and to suggest an approach to implement health standards in developing country settings that is sensitive to the local context, allows change to occur through small steps, and provides a mechanism for scaling information systems.