User participation in the implementation of large-scale suite systems in healthcare

Abstract

Currently, much software in healthcare is introduced as large-scale suite systems that aim at covering needed functionality for different institutions, wards, and professionals. With these systems, the software is already in place and development is largely replaced with the activity of configuration. Configurable suite systems create new conditions for user participation in healthcare software projects. We want to explore these conditions further, and we ask the following research question: What is the users’ role in the implementation of large healthcare suite systems? In this study, we discuss four ways in which user participation in implementing large-scale suite systems are different from smaller-scale software projects.