Getting the Two to Dance: Examining Barriers to Health Information Systems Research in Mainstream IS Journal

Despite numerous opportunities for health information systems research (HISR) and mainstream IS to inform each other's theoretical and empirical work, very little HISR work finds its way into mainstream IS journals. In this paper, we discuss ways to get the two fields to "dance" by examining a number of benefits to HISR-IS cross-fertilization, a number of possible perceptual and intellectual barriers and challenges preventing their interest in dancing (the cross-fertilization of the two fields), and various ways forward in encouraging the dance (reducing these barriers). Two particular studies that span the divide successfully are critiqued, in order to provide guidance to both reviewers and writers of HISR work.