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This study examines how modular interfaces manifest in multi-provider contexts and how they can improve coordination and customization of services. The aim of the study is to describe interfaces in multi-provider contexts and elaborate on how they support the delivery of integrated patient care.

A qualitative, multiple case study was conducted in two multi-provider contexts in healthcare services: one representing paediatric Down syndrome care in the Netherlands and one representing home care for the elderly in Finland. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews in both contexts.

This study provides insight into several types of interfaces and their role in multi-provider contexts. Several inter- and intra-organizational situations were identified in which the delivery of integrated patient care was jeopardized. This study describes how interfaces can help to alleviate these situations.

This study deepens the understanding of interfaces in service modularity by describing interfaces in multi-provider contexts. The multi-provider contexts studied inspired to incorporate the inter-organizational aspect into the literature on interfaces in service modularity. This study further develops the typology for interfaces in modular services by adding a third dimension to the typology, that is, the orientation of interfaces.

Discusses the notion of eigenform as explicated by Heinz von Foerster wherein an object is seen to be a token for those behaviors that lend the object its apparent stability in a changing world.

Describes von Foerster's model for eigenforms and recursions and puts this model in the context of mathematical recursions, fractals, set theory, logic, quantum mechanics, the lambda calculus of Church and Curry, and the categorical framework of fixed points of Lawvere.

Determines that iterating a transformation upon itself is seen to be a key to understanding the nature of objects and the relationship of an observer and the apparent world of the observer.

Contemplates the concept of recursion in the context of second‐order cybernetics.