Becoming Data-Driven: Exploring Data Work and Tensions in Healthcare Data Journeys

Encouraged by the vast amounts of data produced in healthcare,<br/>political ambitions for a data-driven approach have led to significant<br/>investments in healthcare infrastructures. This paper explores how healthcare<br/>professionals engage in data work to realize ambitions of becoming data-<br/>driven within regional healthcare settings. Drawing on the notion of data<br/>journeys (Leonelli, 2020), the study examines how data is produced,<br/>processed, mobilized, and repurposed through Business Intelligence tools<br/>and a data warehouse. Based on qualitative interviews and fieldwork, the<br/>paper identifies three central forms of data work: ‘re-configuring data<br/>infrastructures', ‘managing data quality in practice’, and ‘visualizing and<br/>recontextualizing data’. The findings show that data journeys are not linear<br/>but cyclical, negotiated, and shaped by infrastructural constraints,<br/>professional judgment, and institutional tensions. These tensions, such as<br/>breakdowns, ontological ambiguity, and disputes, are not mere disruptions<br/>but central to how data becomes actionable. The paper introduces the<br/>concept of the ‘productive paradox of error’ to capture how error management<br/>generates new epistemic and ontological work, positioning tensions as<br/>generative forces in the pursuit of becoming data-driven.