The Implementation of a Health-IT Academic Focus: A Case Study

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act responds to the call for increased adoption and proficient use of health care information technology (HIT) [9, p. 33]. This paper is a case study that describes a collaborative venture undertaken by two university departments to implement Health-IT academic focus. The resulting major-Health Care Information Systems Management-followed the principles of social learning theory to educate information systems technologists to possess knowledge of health administration issues and health care administrators, knowledge of information systems. Further, this case discussion serves to examine the role of organizational culture as a critical variable for effective strategy implementation. Our case in point is the Departments of Computer Information Systems, College of Business, and Health Care Administration, College of Health Professions that graduated its first cohort of HISM majors. The match of organizational culture with the colleges' mission, values and goals was key for successful strategic achievement.