Paper Type
ERF
Abstract
Digital transformation in healthcare organizations is typically studied after technology deployment. This paper examines what happens before: how the early design work surrounding a not-yet-implemented digital idea-management system already reshapes frontline practices and professional identities. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative case study of a nurse-led innovation initiative at a large Swedish tertiary hospital, we introduce anticipatory infrastructuring as a theoretical concept describing the process by which actors stabilize emerging practices, negotiate governance boundaries, and reconfigure professional identities in relation to a digital artifact that does not yet exist. Preliminary findings reveal three patterns: the normalization of idea articulation as clinical practice, the anticipatory reconfiguration of nurses' professional roles, and the imagined tool's coordinating function across actors with divergent expectations. The study contributes to IS research on infrastructuring, healthcare innovation, and the pre-implementation dynamics of digital transformation.
Paper Number
1283
Recommended Citation
Toniolo, Korinzia and Essén, Anna, "Before the Tool: How Early Design Work Reconfigures the Idea Management Process in a Nurse-led Innovation Initiative" (2026). AMCIS 2026 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2026/sig_health/sig_health/6
Before the Tool: How Early Design Work Reconfigures the Idea Management Process in a Nurse-led Innovation Initiative
Digital transformation in healthcare organizations is typically studied after technology deployment. This paper examines what happens before: how the early design work surrounding a not-yet-implemented digital idea-management system already reshapes frontline practices and professional identities. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative case study of a nurse-led innovation initiative at a large Swedish tertiary hospital, we introduce anticipatory infrastructuring as a theoretical concept describing the process by which actors stabilize emerging practices, negotiate governance boundaries, and reconfigure professional identities in relation to a digital artifact that does not yet exist. Preliminary findings reveal three patterns: the normalization of idea articulation as clinical practice, the anticipatory reconfiguration of nurses' professional roles, and the imagined tool's coordinating function across actors with divergent expectations. The study contributes to IS research on infrastructuring, healthcare innovation, and the pre-implementation dynamics of digital transformation.
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