Large-Scale Complex IT Systems. Development, Operation and Management

Abstract

This paper argues that it is possible to develop useful generic representations of care pathways, drawing on evidence and argument about clinical teams, about the ability of teams to cope with radical uncertainty and about the influence of institutional arrangements on the journeys that patients take through health systems. The arguments are used to identify a mismatch between current practices in the design of large scale digital systems and doctors' and other health professionals' needs for information about patients' risks and outcomes to support their work. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.