Information systems for primary health care: the case of the Aegean islands

The concern of this paper is the creation of an information system for primary health care. The problem environment is characterised by its location – health centres and agrarian surgeries serving small to medium size communities, which make up insular societies on the Aegean islands in Greece. The approach adopted was based on soft systems methodology (SSM) with the aim of obtaining operational models of the problem situation requiring the information system (IS). The SSM approach has proved most efficient in identifying important subsystems within the primary health care system. It also aided in this way the debate about the solutions to the problem of creating an IS in a health centre on the island of Samos.