Barriers of developing and implementing IT-innovation in healthcare : A process study of challenges in eHealth development

Sammanfattning: Healthcare in Sweden is in need of eHealth innovations to meet the requirements a highlydeveloped society. However to develop and implement eHealth in the healthcare system ischallenging because the system is experienced as complex, conservative and fragmented.In this thesis a qualitative single case study has been conducted to further investigate thechallenges of development and implementation of eHealth. This study demonstrates that itis challenging to understand the complexity of the healthcare system and this has animpact on eHealth development. Involvement of potential users and collaborationbetween stakeholders are seen as a suggested solution to understand this problem. Thisthesis has also shown that to involve users and collaborators is challenging as well.Further the study has shown that there are technological challenges in realizing eHealthin the healthcare system and there is a challenge to develop and implement informationsystems because of regulatory limitations. Despite years of experience in healthcare or ITdevelopmentmany of the respondents find that these factors challenge innovation efforts.