User Resistance to Health Information Technology

The use of information technology (IT) in healthcare to improve outcomes is now a global phenomenon. If effectively implemented and efficiently leveraged, these technologies will greatly lower healthcare costs, improve safety, and elevate the quality of health. Nevertheless, health IT implementation and adoption continues to meet challenges. Reports show that physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals continue to resist health IT. Researchers have proposed models to explain this notion, and till date, there still is a lack of an overarching paradigm to view the concept. Resistance is a complex phenomenon that defies simple explanation and analysis. It requires well-accepted theories or paradigms encompassing the full range of variables associated with it. Understanding and mitigating user resistance is a great step toward improving sector-wide adoption. In this chapter, the authors survey extant theories of resistance and provide a paradigmatic lens for leveraging this knowledge to practical solutions in health IT adoption.