Developing an Integration Architecture to Manage Heterogeneous Data by Private Healthcare Practitioners: A Case of Namibia

Abstract

Patients consult different private healthcare practitioners (PHP) due to the uniqueness of their illnesses and need for different specialisation. However, patient’s health records are stored across autonomous systems of these different PHPs, leading to the establishment of heterogeneous health records. Consequently this creates a challenge of information sharing among PHPs. This study argues that these challenges are attributed to the non-integrated healthcare systems among PHPs and thus causing delay in treatment of patients. The study employs multiple case approach, using the semi-structured interview technique to investigate how health records are stored and shared amongst PHPs. The data collected was interpretively analysed to gain better understanding of the manipulation of patient’s health record. According to the study findings, majority of PHP do not invest in IS and information sharing amongst PHPs is conducted manually. Sharing of medical records manually is challenging and is threatened by issues such as data theft and sabotage. In this study, an integrated architecture to guide the management of healthcare heterogeneous data among healthcare practitioners is developed.