Defining and Characterising the Landscape of eHealth

Abstract

There has been a surge of electronic health (eHealth) technologies encompassing a range of services available to various stakeholders within the health care system in both developed and developing countries. As technology has evolved, the features and functionalities offered by eHealth technologies have grown dramatically leading to a proliferation of advanced technical solutions. As a result of this increased focus various definitions for what constitutes the term eHealth have emerged in the literature. This lack of consensus is further inhibited by a dearth of research documenting the characteristics (i.e. features and functionalities) of such eHealth technologies. The authors propose to define and characterise the landscape of eHealth technologies from an Information Systems (IS) perspective in this chapter. By examining existing literature and reviewing the market place, this study reveals that there is a need to integrate the various features and functions of eHealth technologies, thereby arguing that integration and interoperability is important for the growth of eHealth.