Why Healthcare Is So Complex

Life is complex but it may look quite simple when everything is normal and is working like it ought to. So it’s not easy to determine how complex activities such as balancing, walking, talking, reading, jumping, sleeping and countless seemingly simple activities are.

However, when things are not working as they should and we begin to correct any deficits, it’s usually at this point we start to see this complexity. Attempts to return things to their normal state, are usually met with varying levels of difficulty depending on what system is out of balance.

The level of complexity observed is dependent on the condition(s) that are presented or those which can be identified. It is usually at this point that healthcare (both the health practitioners and the resources used) are stretched to their limits and costs rise astronomically.

Researchers who have been looking at complexity have noted the inherent heterogeneity/diversity in the range of tasks involved and the infinite space in which the nature of healthcare work is performed. This diversity distinguishes it from other complicated areas such as nuclear power generation and aviation.

They have also observed that in the healthcare space, it is sometimes difficult to relate cause to effect due to the interconnectedness of the domain, the often delayed feedback, and the fact that small changes can cascade and result in catastrophic events (patient death) or large changes can have little or no effect. This phenomena makes the domain unpredictable and difficult to understand.

Current digital health systems have used dominant and traditional black box views which have looked at systems like machines where distinct units can be isolated and improved individually. This is in contrast to the views expressed by complexity theory that view systems differently. These theories view the units within systems as frameworks of interrelationships that consists of diverse, robust entities that work interdependently and are capable of adapting to the context that they find themselves in.

This post is the first of many posts which will attempt to discuss the phenomena of complexity in a small way and place it in the context of time, space and ontological elements of data that are collected both when the health landscape is static(rarely) or when its in in flux( (always changing) and show why understanding this may matter.

Various researcher have discussed many of the things I blog about more in depth and references will be given for further reading in a different post.

Steve Magare is the founder of IQ Informatics . He is a health innovation enthusiast, E-health researcher and health Informatics professional interested in finding innovative solutions that can be useful in improving healthcare particularly in less developed economies.