Title: Opportunities and challenges in the deployment of global e-health

Authors: Roberto J. Rodrigues

Addresses: Science Technology and International Affairs Program, Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., Vice President, Medical Informatics Foundation, Miami, FL Senior Consultant, INTECH - The Institute for Technical Cooperation in Health, Inc. Potomac, MD, USA

Abstract: In developed countries, e-health has rapidly evolved from the delivery of online medical content toward the adaptation of generic e-commerce solutions to the processing of health-related administrative transactions and logistical support of clinical tasks. E-health is perceived as being particularly useful in the operational support of the new decentralised and collaborative healthcare models being implemented in many countries. Heretofore designed for large organisations and industrialised countries, e-health solutions are being increasingly proposed as an answer to the many health system management problems and healthcare demands faced by health organisations in developing societies. There are hard lessons to be learned from e-commerce, e-government, and e-health achievements and failures in developed countries and a careful examination of those experiences, vis-a-vis the characteristics of the health sector, organisational preparedness, and technological infrastructure of developing countries is a helpful exercise in the selection of appropriate e-health design and deployment strategies.

Keywords: developing countries; health sector; information and communication technologies; technology deployment; technology infrastructure; technology markets; e-health.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2003.004173

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2003 Vol.5 No.3/4/5, pp.335 - 358

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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