Standardization Strategies in Practice - Examples from Healthcare

Abstract

This chapter explores some of the consequences of strategies used to develop electronic standards in healthcare, especially the consequences of electronic standards for communication work. The two standardization strategies explored are the prototype strategy used to develop intranet applications and the specification strategy used to develop Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) in healthcare. It was found that computer systems based on different electronic standards intervene in work in different ways, and that they do not always intervene in the ways they were initially intended. For example, the PACS based on the DICOM standard have primarily attained a local role, although its initial aim was to support universal image communication within healthcare. On the other hand the intranet application based on the Internet standards primarily not designed for this particular purpose has come to support communication of images and reports within the heterogeneous hospital network.