The Purola model and the Holistic Concept of Man metaphor as bases for the networked view of decision-making in eHealth and eWelfare

• Main Author: Jaakko Hakula
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Finnish Social and Health Informatics Association 2009-05-01
• Series: Finnish Journal of eHealth and eWelfare
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/finjehew/article/view/1939

The essence of the essay is to outline two models or metaphors of different philosophic and practical origins, with the aim of recombining the two to encompass some relevant aspects of modern information systems contexts in eHealth and eWelfare. The Purola model and the Holistic Concept of Man refer to the same real world phenomena but with different ontological and epistemological views. However, many further applications in areas of education, rehabilitation, accounting research, computerized decision support, sociomedical and information systems research remain yet to be contrived. Deeper analyzes of decision making environments of networked systemic wholes in eHealth and eWelfare are needed, both on micro and macro levels. Researchers and practicioners should strive for a balance between ethical demands of individual biopsychosociality and confrontations of technological and economic efficiency, also with macro scale cooperative options in mind.