Institutional Work in Strengthening Health Information Systems in Fragmented Settings: An Action Research Study of Information Dashboards in East African Community and Indonesia
Wilfred F. Senyoni · NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives · 2021
Health Information Systems (HIS) supports data managers in making informed decisions to allocate scarce resources. However, the benefits of HIS implementations in developing countries have been notoriously difficult to realise with information fragmentation, and lack of coordinated efforts among stakeholders cited as the key challenges facing HISs in developing countries. A recent notion, attracting attention is that of information dashboards. The implementation and use of information dashboards have emerged as a novel approach for reducing uncertainty during planning and decision making, influencing episodes of social interactions among stakeholders and mobilising resources in supporting the realisation of shared goals. However, little is known on the kind of work required to implement and maintain them in a fragmented HIS environment. This study attempts to contribute towards a practical and conceptual understanding of the nature of institutional work in designing, implementing and maintaining information dashboards in fragmented settings. For this purpose, the study explores the implementation of information dashboards in two action research projects in East African Community and Indonesia.