Shifting from process owner to stakeholder: roles of IT companies in e-health development

Abstract

Is it possible to find a progressive country not aiming to create electronic management and cooperation tools in healthcare? However, design, development and implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) encounter numerous problems and the majority of the problems are of managerial but not technical nature. Volumes of academic literature point to insufficient interplay between e-Health actors as one of the key factors impeding development of the e-Health system. Our research aims at investigating how e-Health system actors in general and IT companies in particular perceive their roles and roles of other key players in e-Health development. The research investigates case of Lithuania, which gave rise to numerous works on the national e-Health system almost a decade ago, but have not produced expected results yet. The main technique applied in research was semi structured interviewing. Interviewees were selected from IT companies specializing in e-Health (6 interviewees), healthcare organizations (48 interviewees), and e-Health policy shapers (4 interviewees). Preliminary research results revealed that Lithuania went through two qualitatively distinct stages in the development of the national e-Health system. The first stage was earmarked by shortcomings in strategy, leadership and management. Therefore, different IT companies took the initiative of proposing their products to various healthcare organizations. The process resulted in a scattered variety of IT solutions for e-Health development, with faint possibilities to integrate. In the second stage, previous mistakes have been avoided and more attention is given to stakeholder management issues. IT companies also changed their position in the e-Health system from an apparent process owner to a partner implementing customer demands.