The Digital Transformation of Healthcare

In all areas of society we are experiencing a paradigm shift from thinking in terms of closed systems to thinking in terms of open networks. We live in a “networked” world that is characterized by networks both online and offline. Networks are non-hierarchical, inclusive, connected, complex, and open. They are constructed out of both humans and nonhumans. Networks today have become a kind of blueprint for the way in which society is being organized, including healthcare. Healthcare is no longer primarily something that takes place in the intimacy and confines of the doctor-patient relationship. Instead, health care is distributed throughout a complex network of both human and nonhuman actors such as databases, hospital information systems, digital health records, electronic health cards, online patient communities, health related apps, smart homes with ambient assisted living technologies, etc. Networks operate most efficiently when they conform to norms such as connectivity, flow of information, communication, participation, transparency, and authenticity. These norms guide the production and uses of health related information and knowledge. They condition how health related knowledge can create value both with regard to efficiency and quality of care. In this article, we take a look at how the norms of digital transformation have changed managing knowledge in health care networks.