Designing Work Oriented Infrastructures

The implementation of information technology in attempts to improve a work process can at times prove to be more damaging than positive in a workplace. In this article we have seen ideas on how “work oriented infrastructures” should be viewed in attempts to effect change on a particular work infrastructure. This publication is targeted not only at those persons implementing systems such as PACS and RIS, but also, to anyone who has input in designing infrastructures that will have an effect on any work tasks. The authors also want to make the distinction that they do not see “infrastructure as a purified technology, but rather in a perspective where the technology cannot be separated from social and other non-technological elements” (Hanseth, O., Lundberg, N. (2001), pg. 349). Throughout the article we have seen that anything related to, or, anything that helps accomplish a particular task be referred to as infrastructure.

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems and challenges faced when implementing new infrastructures. The authors also suggest that the best way of dealing with problems associated with new implementations is to treat them as “work oriented infrastructures” (Hanseth, O., Lundberg, N. (2001), pg. 347). Having worked in Medical Informatics, both the authors, Hanseth and Lundberg have an understanding as well as experience on implementations of PAC and RIS. It has been determined that their motivation for this article is to relate issues that were faced during their attempts to implement PACS and RIS into their current paper based infrastructure.

Through the use of ethnographic methods, the authors have determined that those users directly related to a particular work task should be included in the development of new infrastructures related to their work. It was also determined that work practices were linked indirectly in the hospital along with artifact and humans into an actor-network (Hanseth, O., Lundberg, N. (2001), pg. 359). According to Walsham, actor-network theory examines the motivations and actions of actors who form elements, linked by associations, of heterogeneous network of aligned interests (Walsham, G. (2001), pg. 46).

The article then implies that infrastructures aren’t simple in nature, but rather complex webs that have taken time and developed or co-evolve over years. This is one of the major reasons the authors consider it to be a challenging task changing and designing work oriented infrastructures. Hanseth and Lundberg also determined that another major issue can occur from the fact that not only does information technology bring forth better ways of doing a particular task, it can also lead to the duplication of some tasks as well. The article also states how difficult it is to change large networks because of their complexity and inter-dependencies with other processes. This brings me to one of the major strengths of this