Supporting Process Innovation with Lightweight IT at an Emergency Unit

Abstract

In this paper, the role of lightweight IT in process innovation is studied. The research question is how can lightweight IT support process innovation within an established e-health information infrastructure. The empirical evidence is a qualitative case study at a primary care emergency service in Oslo. Two contributions are provided. First, applying the lens of business process innovation to the literature on information infrastructures, the value of the installed base is emphasized, especially the knowledge and practices related to existing horizontal processes, while the implementation project at the same time is speeded up. Second, the role of lightweight technology in improving logistics and message interaction within and between health units is demonstrated. The lightweight technologies availability on the commercial market makes acquisition and implementation faster. Based on this, a “bypassing strategy” where a new layer of technology is built separately from the existing infrastructure in order to effectively address process innovation efforts is suggested.