10 September 2009

Call for papers: Change Management in the Healthcare Industry

A special issue of International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management

The healthcare industry is experiencing change, primarily directed at physician behaviours, drug regulatory processes, hospital practices and monitoring of core quality outcomes. New technologies and information systems and revised payment and financing methods are the impetus for change. In addition, countries such as the US have the potential for discontinuous systemic change through major policy reforms being discussed.

The need for theories and improved practice of the management of change is heightened by the increasing calls for quality and efficiency simultaneously. Managing change at the organizational and system levels will become increasingly important. This special issue is focused on exploring contemporary theories of change management in the industry, as well as empirical analyses of existing ones. The healthcare context for the issue includes pharmaceuticals, hospitals, medical supply distributors, physician practices, and other healthcare organizations.

The special issue welcomes a multidisciplinary approach to change management, welcoming submissions from fields of management science, decision sciences, information systems and organizational theory, among others. Preference will be given to high quality papers that have a firm grounding in scientific and mathematical methods, instead of primarily application-based papers. Case study research is not recommended, although theoretical papers that bridge the gap between theory and practice are most useful.

We encourage submission of high-quality papers addressing issues involving change and the management of change in the healthcare industry. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Transformational strategies for leading change in healthcare
  • Behaviour and cognitive impacts of change on healthcare organizations
  • Assessing the role and impact of key information systems (e.g. electronic medical record) adoption on change of organizational management systems and processes
  • The role of emergent and planned change
  • Empirical analyses of management strategies for both discontinuous and incremental change
  • Comparative effectiveness and industry change
  • The affect of quality program adoption on healthcare efficiency, cost, and quality
  • Organizational theories for describing ecology of change
Important Dates
Full paper deadline: 20 November 2009
Notification of acceptance and review results: 15 December 2009
Revised submission deadline: 15 January 2010
Notification of acceptance: 1 February 2010
Camera-ready version deadline: 12 February 2010

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