Towards a critical realist Epistemology for M-Health Research

Abstract

It has been mentioned in various researches that have been done worldwide that countries tend to gain by adopting m-health. As an object of inquiry within Information Systems (IS), the phenomenon of m-health is pretty new with no clear guidelines as to the appropriate epistemology for conducting research in m-health. The objective of this paper is to discuss the object of m-health in the context of the three predominant research paradigms: positivism, critical theory and interpretive research. The objective of this research is to try and align research in m-health to the main research paradigms. The paper will also aim at proposing the most suitable research paradigm for research in m-health systems. Literature analysis reveals that a number of IS researchers are refocusing on the concept of realism as an alternative for positivistic research. In particular, there has been an advocacy for critical realism. The proposition in this paper is that m-health is better researched using a pragmatic approach involving the use of critical theory and critical realism. Keywords - M-health , Critical theory, interpretive, positivism, information Systems