Introducing Electronic Child Records: Balancing Personal Interests, System Perfomance, and Social Values

Improving quality of child healthcare, optimization of child development, anticipation of child neglect or abuse, and other social-values-based childcare activities usually motivate the adoption of electronic child records (ECRs). Having an ECR system in place, many stakeholders concerned with the welfare of children are supposed to use the personal information stored in ECRs in order to do their work effectively and efficiently. Personal data however can only be provided to a limited extent to prevent conflict with privacy laws and ethical values of parents and child. These observations underpin the need for a careful design of introducing ECRs. This paper takes up this challenge. After introducing the problem, we identify a set of potential conflicts between different childcare parties. Based on a case study, we also analyze prototypical childcare processes and related dilemmas. These analyses yield a set of requirements based on which we design a step-by-step process of gradual introducing ECRs. The process takes both technical issues and institutional arrangements into account. Finally, we reflect on the way our integrated approach helps to create the right balance between personal interests, system performance and social values, and draw our conclusions.