The organizing vision of integrated health information systems

Abstract: The notion of integration in the context of health information systems is ill-defined yet in wide-spread use. We identify a variety of meanings spanning from purely technical integration of information systems to integration of services. This ambiguity (or interpretative flexibility), we argue, is inherent rather accidental: it a necessary prerequisite for mobilising political and ideological support among stakeholders for integrated health information systems. Building on this, our aim is to trace out the career dynamics of the vision of integration/ integrated. The career dynamics is the transformation of both the imagery and material (technological) realisations of the unfolding implementation of the vision of integrated care. Empirically we draw on a large, ongoing project at the University hospital of North Norway (UNN) to establish an integrated health information system