Rethinking the improvisation of digital health technology : A niche construction perspective
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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Date
2022Metadata
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Magutshwa, S. (2022). Rethinking the improvisation of digital health technology: A niche construction perspective. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 26, Special Issue, 235-251. https://trauma.massey.ac.nz/issues/2022-IS/contents.htmAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shock waves through healthcare organisations and catalysed an impromptu digital shift, creating a demand for telemedicine and other digital health technologies. Under such conditions, improvisation, adaptation, and innovation emerge as core dimensions to an organisation’s capacity to generate a response to crisis. This paper integrates a process perspective on the radical improvisation of a digital health technology and investigates how the radical improvisation of a digital health technology emerges and develops during a health crisis. Through a combination of supporting case evidence and literature, a multi-phase conceptual process model anchored in the crisis management cycle and illustrating the radical improvisation of digital health technology is developed and proposed. We conclude with discussion on the long-term implications of radical improvisation and crisis learning, with possible theoretical explanation using niche construction theory, and providing suggestions for future information systems and crisis management research.