Barriers to the adoption of a fish health data integration initiative in the Chilean salmonid production

Abstract

The fish production, health and management data routinely collected on aquaculture farms represent a significant resource that could better support epidemiological research than traditional surveys and other studies. To this aim, a collaborative data integration platform was developed in late 2017 with the Chilean salmon and trout production industry (an initiative named 'Plataforma Integrada de Investigación Sanitaria para la Acuicultura', PIISAC). Initially supported through a joint government-industry program, it was planned that the PIISAC initiative would transition towards ongoing industry ownership and governance in 2019. However, this transition did not occur, due to lack of industry support. In this qualitative study, we used semi-structured key informant interviews to explore the perspective of stakeholders on the implementation of PIISAC and identify barriers to sustained adoption. An inductive, semantic thematic analysis was conducted. While informants reported that the platform was valuable for the industry, they also identified many concerns and barriers. These elements were grouped under two main themes, i.e., factors related to the environment for the data integration platform, and issues linked to the project implementation. Within the first main theme, sub-themes included competitive advantages, privacy concerns, and lack of trust between stakeholders and towards third parties. Regarding the project implementation, the identified factors included project attributes such as relative advantage, complexity and observability, as well as participation-related factors such as the critical mass. These factors were consistent with established theory on diffusion of innovations. Additional findings include that in-country presence is critical to support and maintain participation, and that effective communication is equally important as robust design principles to overcome existing perceptions and barriers to participation. The findings of this study can inform the design of future successful and sustainable partnerships. Our work emphasizes the need to conduct targeted consultations during the design stage of such initiatives, to identify context-specific challenges related to the environment and the stakeholders. These consultations are critical to inform the implementation plan and better address the needs of the participants.