Digital health care: Cementing centralisation?

Abstract

This article reviews large-scale digital developments in the National Health Service in England in recent years and argues that there is a mismatch between digital and organisational thinking and practice. The arguments are based on new institutional thinking, where the digital infrastructure is taken to be an institution, which has been shaped over a long period, and which in turn shapes the behaviour of health professionals, managers and others. Many digital services are still being designed in line with a bureaucratic data processing model. Yet health services are increasingly based on a network model, where health professionals and service managers require information systems that allow them to manage risks proactively and to coordinate multiple services on behalf of patients. This article further argues that the data processing model is being reinforced by Open Data policies and by related developments in the acquisition of genomic and telehealth data, suggesting that the mismatch will persist. There is, therefore, an ongoing tension between frontline and central objectives for digital services. It may be that the tension can only be resolved when – or if – there is trust between the interested parties.