Potential of low-code in the healthcare sector : an exploratory study of the potential of low-code development in the healthcare sector in Norway
Abstract
The Norwegian healthcare sector is currently facing significant challenges regarding
electronic health records (EHRs) and information exchange. Several of today’s EHR systems
are outdated, and there is a lack of information exchange between different healthcare
services. There is an ongoing planning project, termed Akson, which assigns these
issues. Several technologies can be suited in the Akson project. A relatively new an
unexplored technology in Norway, is low-code. The goal of this master thesis is to
understand how low-code can be suited to develop an EHR for primary healthcare services
and an interaction platform for all healthcare services in Norway. The study addressed two
areas that helped increase our understanding. First, we examined the challenges in
the Akson project. Second, we investigated the possible benefits of using low-code to
develop the new solution. The data for our analysis were collected using semi-structured
interviews with twelve representatives from ten different organizations, with regards to
either the Akson project or low-code development.
When answering the overall research problem, we examined how the advantages of lowcode
can contribute to solving some of the main challenges in the Akson project. Our
findings showed that the advantages of speed and innovation in low-code can help to solve
the challenges related to the time horizon and flexibility of the Akson solution. Low-code
can reduce the time horizon because low-code developers can build faster, and thus deliver a
new solution in a shorter time. Not only is development quicker, but also the adaptation of a
low-code solution takes less time than with traditional coding. Being able to adapt the
solution to keep it up to date is an advantage of low-code that can reduce the risk of planning
a solution for the future based on today’s technology. Further, the innovation opportunities
in low-code can contribute to solving the challenge of flexibility in Akson. By using lowcode,
it will be possible to adapt the solution to the actual needs of each healthcare service
and municipality while maintaining a minimum of functionality for all. Finally, Sapphire
Hospital Management System (HMS) served as an excellent example of a solution built on a
low-code development platform (LCDP). In Sapphire HMS, they have managed to ensure
privacy and information exchange across different healthcare services. We will argue
that low-code can be a suited technology for the Akson project. However, we are aware that
technology cannot solve all challenges, like for instance organizing and financing.