Institutional Structures and Culture in Healthcare: A Comparative Case on Health Learning

This paper describes two design approaches to health learning -- one a self-paced multimedia portal providing information about a highly specialized injury and the other an instructional aide, assisting educators in delivering content about medical practices. Both systems primarily targeted healthcare staff, namely physicians and nurses and were implemented in the United States and India respectively. Through an analysis of the contextual factors that determined the design of both systems we uncovered common threads concerning 1) social structures within hospitals and their influence on the flow of information within formal institutions 2) the role of institutional culture and its impact on learning. In conclusion we discuss some considerations to inform those intending to successfully deploy healthcare information systems designed for a western audience in a country like India while also discussing takeaways for healthcare systems in both locations.

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