Title:	CUSTOMIZATION OF GLOBAL SOFTWARE SYSTEM FOR HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT: MANAGING LOCAL ORGANIZATION-EXTRINSIC FACTORS
Author(s):	Zeferino Benjamim Saugene
ISBN:	978-972-8939-47-2
Editors:	Miguel Baptista Nunes, Pedro Isaías and Philip Powell
Year:	2011
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Global Software System, Geographic Information System, Health Care Sector, Developing Countries, Communities of Practice
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	103
Last Page:	113
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for health care related decision making has been recognized for long time and today almost every government from developed world have adopted it. Health care managers from developing countries are showing interest in adopting not only GIS but also Global Software Systems (GSS). However, successful adoption of such GSS GIS is dependent on successful care of technical, organizational as well as cultural challenges. The paper reports on an Action Research Study that aims at understanding the tensions of implementing GIS for health care management in Developing Countries. The study is part of a big project being jointly conducted by researchers from Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique and the University of Oslo aiming at improving maternal and child health. The work presented here represents the first phase of the study, conducted in Mozambique, which intended to assess a number of GIS stakeholders and explore the practices and attitudes while dealing with spatial data. Professionals from selected institutions, whose data impacts in health performance, were interviewed and the findings confirm that spatial data with good quality is not easily obtainable and significant investment is required for capturing, storing, and manipulating of spatial data. From these can be argued that, if GIS has to be used to support health care decision making process spatial data of good quality need to be available when needed. Because institutions in developing countries are working in isolated manner, new approaches on spatial data need to be developed and communities of practice principles from Knowledge Management theory can help in materializing these government transformations.
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