Implementing national public healthcare information infrastructures are often challenging, this is even more so in the global south. In this paper we offer an analysis of a successful development and introduction of a national healthcare information system. The MIPRES was developed by the Colombian Ministry of Health as a web application for the prescription of high-cost technologies (drugs and devices), but over time grew to become the backbone of a renewed digital healthcare information infrastructure. Through a qualitative empirical study, informed by information infrastructure theory, we document the emergence and evolution of MIPRES and analyse both the contextual conditions and strategic choices that led to its success.