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In the last years, the acceleration of the scientific and technological progress in the information domain has been critical for the foundation of a new world-wide era. In a global context of growing dynamism and variability, the “Information Era” promotes a strong revolution of knowledge and perceptions in practically all areas of human knowledge.
A decisive factor in the survival of any organization is the information. An information system is a socio-technical subsystem of an organization that collects, stores, processes, transmits and displays data, information, and knowledge relevant to it (Avison & Wood-Harper, 1986; Buckingham, Hirschheim, Land, & Tully, 1986; Laudon & Laudon, 2017). “Socio” corresponds to the persons involved in information processing as healthcare professionals and computer scientists, whereas “technical” refers to information processing tools like computers, telephones and patient records (Haux, Ammenwerth, Winter, & Brigl, 2004). This meets Davis and Olson's (1985) vision of an information system, which is an integrated man/machine system that provides information to support operations and decision-making in organizations. Information places a high value in the organizations because it enables the continuous adaptation to the ever-changing markets and also allows to monitor the results of its activities. Therefore, it is especially decisive to the health organizations, either for its action, i.e., its decision-making process, or for its reaction, i.e., the control and correction of deviations from its action.
Over the years, patients have been experiencing increased awareness regarding the need for better and faster health care delivery. A set of economic, technological and social factors, as well as the constant and increasing pressure to respond to the patient’s needs, impel health institutions, as co-responsible for the practice of medicine, to find new ways to perfect the quality of the services provided. Faced with this reality, health organizations should be as prepared as possible to make better, faster, more informed and less intuitive decisions. Consequently, to meet these requirements, in recent years, health institutions have been increasingly adopting health information systems (Miranda, Pontes, Abelha, Neves, & Machado, 2012; Miranda et al., 2010).
The information technologies applied in the health sector have the potential to ensure the efficient delivery of health care and improve the quality of services provided by health professionals as they provide comprehensive and credible information and support the decision-making process, both clinically and administratively, thereby reducing the incidence of adverse events and clinical errors (Bonney, 2013; Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, & Blumenthal, 2011; Lee, McCullough, & Town, 2013). Health information systems are support tools that comprise all information processing functions and the human or technical actors in their information processing role. These complex socio-technical subsystems processing data, information, and knowledge were designed to ease the management of clinical and administrative information and the planning, refinement and decision-making process of the different professionals of the health system (Chen & Hsiao, 2012; Haux et al., 2004).