The Organisational Challenges of Implementing eHealth Services: : A Case Study on The Patient Self-Test Application in Centre for Rheumatology

Abstract: It is widely believed that eHealth will play a vital role in the development and shaping of healthcare systems in the twenty first century. However, despite all documented reports and benefits of eHealth technologies, many attempts to extend successful pilot projects have not sufficiently met promised results and to a large extent failed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Centre for Rheumatology’s current implementation process of eHealth services in order to identify success factors and improvement areas. To reach the purpose, the research was delimitated to solely focus on the eHealth service Patient Self-Test and the implementation of it at the care unit.The research was conducted as a case study with a qualitative approach based on the notion of induction. The research process consisted of three major areas: pre-study, literature review and qualitative interviews. The pre-study was based on interviews with different actors within the health care industry in Sweden to provide an academic, political and business perspective of the research area. The literature review focused on the areas eHealth and change management and empirical data was gathered through qualitative interviews. Moreover, to have a tool for analysis, a research framework named 4 Seasons Model was developed.The results of the thesis indicate on a gap between how the literature advocates the implementation of transitional changes, and how it is currently done at Centre for Rheumatology’s. Based on an analysis from a 4 Seasons Model perspective, three success factors and seven improvement areas have been identified in Centre for Rhematology’s current implementation process of the Patient Self-Test.