Nursing Terminologies as Evolving Large-Scale Information Infrastructures
Rune Pedersen, Torbjørg Træland Meum, Gunnar Ellingsen · Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems · 2012
This paper describes the slowly evolving nature of large-scale terminology- based information infrastructures. The strategic aim of implementing standardized ter - minologies is to share and compare information within and across domain-specific and organizational boundaries. We are particularly interested in working classification sys - tems focused on specific domains' and classes, and even more specifically in reference terminologies with the capability to interconnect different existing classification sys - tems. We examine this empirically through a threefold case based on data from three Norwegian university hospitals, where we also track a national recommendation of a reference terminology. The reference terminology, which was initially promoted as a means to achieve integration and harmonization, is increasingly perceived as compet - ing with other terminologies. This gateway has been presented as a purely techni- cal and politically neutral system, but may be more complex in reality: such integration processes require considerable adaptations, negotiations, and manual maintenance.