Roberta Bernardi

University of Bristol | UB · University of Bristol Business School

Drawing upon an affordance‐actualisation perspective, we aim to advance our knowledge of the emergence of unintended consequences from the implementation of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Prior research has not yet deeply understood how these unintended consequences unfold. We investigate how the (non‐)actualisation of affordances produces...

Taking an institutional logics perspective, this study investigates how “internet-informed” patients manage tensions between the logic of personal choice and the logic of medical professionalism as they navigate treatment decisions and the patient-doctor relationship. Based on 44 semi-structured interviews with members of an online health community...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how community attachment to an OHC reduces the OHC users' emotional distress and therefore improves their emotional well-being. Design/methodology/approach A survey study was conducted in one of the largest online health communities (OHC) for people with diabetes. Findings OHC participants are l...

In the originally published version of this chapter, the name of the second author Roberta Bernardi was incorrect. The name of the author has been corrected.

For over three decades telecentres have been promoted as a means of reducing digital exclusion. However, their relevance is inconclusive. In this paper we investigate how telecentre users empower rural communities in Malawi. We adopt a qualitative approach and report preliminary findings from users and indirect beneficiaries of one telecentre. The...

For over three decades telecentres have been promoted as a means of reducing digital exclusion. However, their relevance is inconclusive. In this paper we investigate how telecentre users empower rural communities in Malawi. We adopt a qualitative approach and report preliminary findings from users and indirect beneficiaries of one telecentre. The...

Clinical managers play a crucial role in securing the implementation and sustainability of information technology (IT) innovation in health care. Yet, not all clinical managers are willing and able to support IT innovation, particularly when the institutional logics of an IT innovation challenge their professional practice. We investigate how clini...

This paper proposes a framework for understanding how individuals empowered by telecentres, in return, empower their rural communities. The issue is that although ICT4D projects such as telecentres are viewed as a vital way to foster social economic development, their effectiveness on reducing digital exclusion is continuously being questioned. Thi...

Improving the state of citizens’ health is an urgent priority in many low and middle income countries (LMICs), and health management information systems (HMIS) are widely seen as valuable tools for pursuing this priority. Yet, the potential of HMIS has been difficult to materialize in the LMIC context since routines and practices that work against...

Health information systems (HIS) in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been often implemented under the international pressure of accounting for health care investments. The idea behind robust and efficient HIS is that health information can allow for better planning and monitoring of the health service, which may translate into bet...

Online health communities offer unprecedented opportunities of empowering patients to take care of their own health and reducing the pressure of chronic diseases on the health service. Given the importance of knowledge for the empowerment of patients, the objective of this study is to understand the impact of knowledge sharing in online health comm...

Information systems (IS) innovation in healthcare is a contested area often characterized by complex and conflicted relationships among different stakeholders. In this paper, we provide a systematic understanding of the mechanisms through which various actors translate competing visions about health sector reforms into policy and action and, thus,...

This paper seeks to explore the key affordances influencing patients’ engagement with online communities on Twitter. Drawing on a socio-technical perspective of affordances, the paper presents the qualitative analysis of a sample of tweets from a patients’ community chat on Twitter. The paper makes the following contributions. First, it draws on th...

This research is based on the case study of one Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in England and its plans to adopt telehealth for the development of one community-based service. Our focus is on the limitations to distributed leadership and boundary spanning during the conception of an innovation. We analyse the main challenges faced by local entr...

The objective of this paper is to understand how policy discourse transformations generate ambiguity in the way health service innovation unfolds. Past research does not produce a systematic understanding of the discourse mechanisms through which policy discourse produces ambiguity and contradictions in health service innovation. Our study fills th...

Using a case study of health information systems (HIS) in Kenya, we seek to better understand how HIS afford or constrain the action of local actors in provisioning health care in developing countries. We developed a theoretical perspective based on institutional theory that served as a lens to interpret the relationship between institutions and us...

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been recognized as a key enabler of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper will address one aspect of the relationship between ICT and MDGs by focussing on the way ICT has been employed for monitoring HIV/AIDS initiatives in Kenya. The objective of the paper is to better understand how a d...

The objective of the chapter is to discuss how Information Technology can mitigate constraints to policy implementations stemming from a highly contested context. Main recommendations have been drawn by discussing main challenges met by Kenya in the restructuring of its health Information Systems as demanded by health sector reforms. The discussion...

In the recent years most African countries have embarked on a series of reforms involving the decentralisation and also integration of health information systems in order to allow improved efficiency and effectiveness in the health care. However, although the discourse around these issues are reflected in global policy documents of almost twenty ye...

In the last twenty years most African Governments have embarked on health sector reforms sponsored by international partners. Conceived under New Public Management, the majority of these reforms leverage information technology to decentralise hierarchical structures into more information efficient organizations. The paper illustrates the case study...

The research adopts a multivocal and multilevel institutionalist perspective to analyze information technology enabled change into the structures of the public service in Africa as reflected in changes of practices around information processing. Information systems scripts and guidelines are considered as vocal to new logics of public service (e.g....

The paper proposes a business model analysis framework to identify the main issues that need to be addressed within the context of a specific developing country for the sustainable development and growth of OSS. Based on the longitudinal case study of the Ministry of Health in Kenya, the paper analyses how the adoption and usage of technology has i...