Introduction special issue on IT adoption and evaluation in healthcare

This special issue’s coverage truly reflects the spectrum of research areas within Ken Trimmer’s domain. The development of these papers from initial submission also reflects Dr. Trimmer’s ability to aptly match submitted paper to a review team that could insightfully mature the work. This web of scientists coming together in this special issue and in other efforts co-collaborated on elaborated into a collegial force in collectively extending knowledge in the healthcare adoption domain. Healthcare still has major difficulties in implementing e-health successfully. The first paper in this special issue from Junhua Li, Holly Seale, Pradeep Ray, Amina Tariq and C. Raina MacIntyre handles the preparedness for e-health in pandemic situations. With a preparedness framework the authors show a way to maximise e-health benefits. When e-health is adopted it often leads to complex inter-organisational systems. Stefan Schellhammer, Kai Reimers and Stefan Klein show information infrastructures in Australia and Ireland. A cross-case comparison demonstrates that successful standardisation and reliance on proprietary systems not only influences the future of the electronic ordering systems but also shapes emerging information infrastructures in healthcare.