When the Swedish National IT Strategy for Health and Social Care was introduced in 2006, intensive work started in implementing Information Systems (IS) in Swedish healthcare organizations. To follow up on the requests for more research with a combined socio-technical focus on challenges, the overall aim of this thesis was to identify social challenges when implementing IS in a Swedish healthcare organization. Furthermore, the aim was to understand the impact of identified social challenges when implementing IS in this context by putting them in an interdisciplinary Applied Health Technology theoretical framework. Institutional ethnography and phenomenological hermeneutics influenced the study design. Study 1 aimed to investigate different meanings of accessibility when implementing Health Information Technology in everyday work practice. The results indicate that accessibility depends on working routines, social structures and patient relationship. When an IT strategy and interaction in everyday work use the same word in different ways there will be consequences. Study 2 sets out to describe experience-based reflections on discharge planning as narrated by nursing staff in primary healthcare, along with their concerns about how the introduction of video conferencing might influence the discharge planning situation. It was found that there is a need for improvement in communication and understanding between nursing staff at the hospital and in primary healthcare. The aim of study 3 was to explore social challenges when implementing IS in everyday work in a nursing context. Power (changing the existing hierarchy, alienation), Professional identity (calling on hold, expert becomes novice, changed routines), and Encounter (ignorant introductions, preconceived notions) were categories presented in the findings. The aim of study 4 was to explore and obtain a deeper understanding of how identified social challenges have an influence on the implementation process of IS, based on healthcare staff’s experiences on micro, meso and macro levels of Swedish Healthcare organizations. It was found that the challenges were related to the steps of putting into practice, making IS a part of everyday work routine and establishing an identity in the implementation process. In the thesis’s discussion, social challenges when implementing IS in Swedish healthcare organizations and how they might be met and dealt with constructively are further reflected upon in relation to the interdisciplinary theoretical framework and as possible consequences of the modernity-era. This thesis contributes to the starting up of a discussion of how ingrained professional characteristics are important to feel secure of being part of an established profession. If the characteristics are questioned, the whole professional performance is threatened. One consequence of this insight is the reinforcement of the realization that a basic understanding of IS and IS implementation processes in healthcare organizations needs to be integrated in to the construction of professional identity of nurses already from the start in nursing education.

The overall aim of this thesis has been to study the implementation process concerning the use of video conferencing in discharge planning, during and after a development project in a region in southeast Sweden. The research approach has been developed within a new interdisciplinary research area, Applied Health Technology. The main focus of the research has been on how the new IT solution has affected everyday work, and in what ways management supported staff during the implementation process. The study design has a qualitative approach. Phenomenological hermeneutics, content analysis and Participatory Action Research (PAR) have been used in the analysis process. Study I aimed to describe  primary healthcare nursing staff’s experiences of discharge planning, along with their concerns about using video conferencing in discharge planning sessions. It was found that there is need for improvement in communication and understanding between nursing staff working in hospitals and in primary healthcare, and need for nursing staff to obtain more information about how IT solutions could support their work. The aim of Study II was to examine the implementation process of using video conferencing in discharge planning, according to a theoretical framework composed from theories about implementation processes. It was found that implementation frameworks can be useful, and that framing the implementation process supports the exposure of factors and highlights relationships and states of dependency between those factors which may affect implementation. Study III set out to describe managers’ reflections about leading the implementation process of using video conferencing in the discharge planning session. The results indicate that managers experienced two leadership perspectives when they reflected on the implementation process. On one hand, they described a desired way of leading implementation, on the other hand they described an actual way of leading implementation. The aim of Study IV was to describe the reflections of professionals about what is needed in order to create what should become a new best practice using videoconferencing in the discharge planning sessions. The results indicate that the professionals experienced lack of knowledge and understanding about each other’s everyday work and that the absence of well-functioning common routines obstructed the process. The results also indicate that there is a lack of common arenas to enable discussions, negotiations and agreements about adopting new routines as the discharge planning process changes over time. This thesis contributes to the much-needed discussions about how to manage the many ongoing IT implementation processes in Swedish healthcare organizations, by highlighting challenges and difficulties that both healthcare professionals and managers have experienced during an implementation process. The results indicate that implementation frameworks can be useful when new IT solutions are introduced in healthcare, and that there is a need for dedicating time, space and support for involved professionals in designing their everyday work.

BackgroundApplied health technology is a research field that ties together several disciplines to improve and preserve the health and quality of life of individuals and society. Helping especially elderly to meet the above goals is an important and necessary task and assistive technology and collection of health data are part of this work. AimsPaper I aims to investigate whether the use of a powered toothbrush could maintain oral health in a group of individuals with MCI and if changes in oral health affect various aspects of quality of life. Paper II and III aims to examine the capacity of a powered toothbrush as a carrier and mediator of health-related data. MethodsFor papers I and II, the participants were recruited from the Swedish site of the multicenter project Support Monitoring And Reminder Technology for Mild Dementia and for paper III from the Department of Health at Blekinge Institute of Technology. In all three papers, a powered toothbrush has been used as a tool, sensor carrier and transmitter of data. For Quality-of-life assessment two instruments are used, The QoL-AD and OHIP 14. ResultsBy introducing an intelligent powered toothbrush in the group of older individuals with mild cognitive impairment we have showed that they, regardless of cognitive level,improved their scores for plaque index, bleeding index and deepened periodontal pockets ≥ 4mm, over 12 months. The quality-of-life instrument related to oral health improved in parallel with the improvement in oral health. Furthermore, it is possible to use the intelligent powered toothbrush both as a carrier for healt related sensors and to transfer user data via Bluetooth technology to a single-core processor that stores or forwards the data via Wifi to an external computer for processing, analysis and storage. A fesibility study regarding temperature sensor for measuring body temperature during toothbrushing have been evaluated and found to be comparable to traditional oral temperature measurement.   ConclusionsAn intelligent powered toothbrush is a well-functioning tool for maintaining oral health in older people with mild cognitive impairment as well as for collecting and transferring brush and health data to external units for storage and analysis.