A multi-country examination of cultural issues affecting attitudes of health sector professionals towards the development and use of information systems

This study investigates whether the cultural differences, that are known to exist between countries, affect the attitudes of professionals in health towards the development and use of information systems. The study was motivated by the perceived failure of health information systems to deliver expected benefits, in particular in international developments, and also by the perception that attitudes of health sector professionals, who are current and potential users of the systems, can have an impact on the success or failure of these systems. Both structured group discussions and a self completion questionnaire were used in this investigation. As well as drawing on previous research on attitudes, a participative approach was taken to the development of the questions to be used, to reduce ethnocentricity in the design. Participants in the study were professionals working in the health sector in Georgia, Tajikistan, Uganda and UK, and professionals in other countries assisted in the study design and group discussions. Preparatory work for rolling out the research has also been carried out in other countries. As well as highlighting cross country differences, the results identified some significant issues in relation to the attitudes of health sector professionals towards information systems developments, common to all countries. The investigation has also led to the development of approaches, suitable for use in a cross cultural setting, that facilitate the identification of the attitudes of users towards information systems. These approaches can help to address the real-world problems faced when implementing health information systems by assisting in understanding the views of stakeholders to the systems, and how these views vary between different groups of staff or different countries