Evaluation of Healthcare IT Applications: The User Acceptance Perspective

As healthcare costs continue to spiral upward, healthcare institutions are under enormous pressure to create cost efficient systems without risking quality of care. Healthcare IT applications provide considerable promises for achieving this multifaceted goal through managing inofrmation, reducing costs, and facilitating total quality management and continuous quality improvement programs. However, the desired outcome can not be achieved if these applications are not being used. In order to better predict, explain, and increase the usage of IT, it is of vital importance to understand the antecedents of end users’ IT adoption decisions. This chapter first reviews the theoretical background of intention models that have been widely used to study factors governing IT acceptance, with particular focus on the technology acceptance model (TAM)—a prevalent technology adoption theory in the area of information system research. Although TAM has been extensively tested and shown to be a robust, powerful, and parsimonious model, its limitations have also been recognized. The second part of this chapter analyzes these limitations and discusses possible precautions of potential pitfalls. The third part of this chapter specifically addresses the applicability of the technology acceptance model in the professional context of physicians, with a review of available studies that have applied TAM to the technology adoption issues in healthcare.