INTEGRATED DIGITAL HEALTH SYSTEMS DESIGN: TOWARDS A SERVICE-ORIENTED SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY

摘要

The application of information technology in healthcare has focused primarily on the implementation of specific systems such as electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), mainly for intra-enterprise use. However, for the integrated health system (IHS) to function effectively in a complex inter-enterprise healthcare delivery environment, designers must focus on approaches such as soft systems methodology (SSM) to enable the design of robust integrated digital health systems (IDHSs). A service-oriented architecture (SOA) offers a flexible framework for IDHSs to become de-centralized, fully functional and modular systems with interoperability. This paper identifies the design issues in IDHS and explores the potential of an SSM methodology-based SOA for the development of interoperable IDHSs.