Application deadline

Type of course

Admission requirements

To take PhD courses you need at a minimum a master¿s degree or equivalent, or admission to a Medical Student Research Program.

For information about how to apply for admission, go to:

http://uit.no/helsefak/forskning/phd/emner

Course content

The course focuses on advanced theoretical perspectives to illuminate organizational aspects connected to design and use of health-related technologies. The course will cover the following topics:

• Challenges of designing, implementing and using a broad specter of complex e-health systems
• Implementation strategies
• Socio-technical integration
• Standardization of technology, routines and practices
• Generative Information Systems
• Establish strategies for workable standardized pathways between primary care and hospitals
• Innovations related to e-health systems
• Identify useful scaling and generification strategies
• Advanced methodological approaches for Information systems research

Objectives of the course

Following the course, the students should be able to:

• Identify challenges of designing, implementing and using a broad specter of complex e-health systems
• Critically assess various implementation strategies
• Have knowledge about the relevance of socio-technical integration and standardization
• Apply working strategies for standardization of technology, routines and practices
• Suggest strategies for the design of generative systems
• Establish strategies for workable standardized pathways between primary care and hospitals
• Have knowledge about the core elements in technical and service innovations related to electronic patient record systems'
• Identify useful scaling and generification strategies in design
• Carry out advanced methodological Information systems research

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

Assessment

2 weeks' take-home examination based on a specific assignment (approximately 15 pages including references, single-line space, font 12)

There will be no re-sit exam.

Recommended reading/syllabus

Recommended litterature

Books:

• Pollock, N., & Williams, R. (2008). Software and Organisations. Routledge.
• Zittrain, J. L. (2008). The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Yale University Press & Penguin UK 2008.

Articles

• Møller and Dourish,(2010). Coordination by avoidance: Bringing things together and keeping them apart across hospital dept.
• Swinglehurst, D., Greenhalgh, T., & Roberts, C. (2012). Computer templates in chronic disease management: ethnographic case study in general practice. BMJ Open, 2(6), 1¿16.
• Larsen, E., & Ellingsen, G. (2010). Facing the Lernaean Hydra¿: The Nature of Large-Scale Integration Projects in healthcare.
• Greenhalgh, T., Morris, L., Wyatt, J. C., Thomas, G., & Gunning, K. (n.d.). Introducing a nationally shared electronic patient record¿: Case study comparison of Scotland , England , Wales and.
• Ash et al. (2003). A Cross-site Qualitative Study of Physician Order Entry. JAMIA, 188¿200.
• D¿adderio, L. (2008). The performativity of routines. Research Policy, 37(5), 769¿789.
• Pollock, N. (2005). When Is a Work-Around? Conflict and Negotiation in Computer Systems Development. ST&HV, 30(4), 496¿514.
• Johannessen, L. K., & Ellingsen, G. (2012). Lightweight Design Methods in Integrated Practices, Design Issues, 28(3).
• Silsand, L. and Ellingsen, G. (2014). The nature of decision support in clinical practice (in preparation)
• Silsand, L.; Christensen, B. and Ellingsen G. (2012): Local configurability of large-scale information infrastructures. Edinburth
• Silsand, L. and Ellingsen, G (2014): Generification by translation; designing generic systems in context of the local, JAIS (in press).
• Røed, K. (2011). Users as Heterogeneous Engineers - The Challenge of Designing Sustainable Information Systems in Health Care. Sciences-New York, 1¿10.
• Ciborra: (2000): A Critical Review of the Literature on the Management of Corporate Information Infrastructure
• Perrow, C. (1984): Complexity, coupling and catastrophe
• Edwards, P. N., & Jackson, S. J. (2007). Understanding Infrastructure¿: Dynamics , Tensions , and Design
• Bygstad, B. (2010). Generative mechanisms for innovation in information infrastructures. Information and Organization, 20(3-4), 156¿168.
• Grisot, M., & Vassilakopoulou, P. (2013). Infrastructures in healthcare: the interplay between generativity and standardization. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 82(5), e170¿9.
• Hanseth, O., & Lyytinen, K. (2010). Design theory for dynamic complexity in information infrastructures: the case of building internet. Journal of Information Technology, 25(1), 1¿19.
• Tilson, D., Lyytinen, K., & Sørensen, C. (2010). Research Commentary ¿Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda. Information Systems Research, 21(4), 748¿759.
• Henfridsson, O., & Bygstad, B. (2013). The generative mechanisms of digital infrastructure evolution. MIS Quarterly, 37(3), 907¿931.