Research Gateway

Abstract

According to WHO, the need for quality health information is more acute in developing countries where resources are limited, and unwise allocation of funds could imply a great difference between survival and death (WHO, 2006b). However, information and communication technologies are expected to play a key developmental role in poor countries. Many see potentials in these technologies to provide unprecedented opportunities for information-intensive social services, such as health and education (Avgerou, 2000). For instance as illustrated in a case from Norway, certain investigations completed in 2002 (Haaheim et al., 2002), revealed that there were some problems associated with logistics, resources, quality, and existing infrastructures at the university hospital. At the laboratory in particular, a major cause of the problem was because the incoming requisitions were paper-based. Thus, the hospital planned for several years to improve quality and efficiency of its pre-analytic laboratory services. It later resorted to establishing electronic laboratory requisitions from General Practitioners‟ offices, and this greatly improved the quality problem, especially as the number of errors made in filling in requisition forms dramatically decreased (Ellingsen & Røed, 2010).