Everyone talks about e-health these days, but few people are familiar with the relatively new term. So we bring you a clear definition of e-Health. It barely came into use before 1999, but today the term seems to serve as a common "buzzword". But e-health is used to denote virtually everything related to computers and medicine, not just "Internet medicine." The term was apparently first used by industry leaders and marketing people rather than academics. They coined and used the term in line with other "e-words" such as e-commerce, e-business, e-solutions, etc., to convey the promise, ethos, excitement (and hype) around e.
Commerce (electronic commerce) is opening up the field of health care, and the Internet offers an account of new possibilities. For example, e-health is defined as "a concerted effort by leaders in the healthcare and high-tech industries to fully use the benefits available through the convergence of the Internet and health care." As the Internet has created new opportunities and challenges for the traditional healthcare information technology industry, a new term seems appropriate to address these issues. These were mainly "new" challenges for the healthcare information technology industry.
(1) the ability of consumers to interact with their systems online (B2C = "consumer to business");
(2) improved possibilities for institution-to-institution transmission of information (B2B = "business to business");
(3) new possibilities for consumer peer-to-peer communication (C2C = "consumer to consumer").
So, how do we define e-health in an academic environment? A member of the JMIR editorial board feels the term should remain within the business and marketing realm and should be avoided in scientific medical literature and discourse. However, the term has already entered the scientific literature (today, 76 Medline-indexed articles contain the term "e-health" in their titles or abstracts). All that remains to be done is - in good scholarly tradition - to define as much as possible what we are talking about. However, as another member of the editorial board pointed out, “Stamping a definition on something like e-health is a bit like stamping a definition on 'the Internet': it's defined by how it's used—the definition can't be pinned down, because It's a dynamic environment, constantly moving."
It seems quite clear that e-health encompasses more than mere technological developments. I will define terms and concepts:
What is e-health?
E-health is an emerging field at the intersection of medical informatics, public health, and business, which refers to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies. In a broad sense, the term refers not only to technological development but also to a state of mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a networked, global thinking, a commitment to improving healthcare locally, regionally, and globally. Using information and communication technology.
This definition is hopefully broad enough to apply in a dynamic environment such as the Internet and recognizes that e-health encompasses more than just "the Internet and medicine".
The "e" in e-health doesn't just stand for "electronic" but refers to many other "e's", which together perhaps best characterize what e-health is (or what it should be). Last, but not least. Not least, these are (or will be) addressed in articles published in the Medical Internet Research Journal.
10 Uses of E in “e-Health”.
skills
One promise of e-health is to increase the efficiency of healthcare, reducing costs. A potential way to reduce costs is by avoiding duplicate or unnecessary diagnostic or therapeutic interventions, improving communication possibilities between healthcare institutions, and through patient involvement.
Enhancing the quality of care
Increasing efficiency involves not only reducing costs but also improving quality. E-health can improve the quality of healthcare by allowing comparison between different providers, engaging consumers as an additional force for quality assurance, and directing patient flow to the best quality providers.
evidence-based
E-health interventions should be evidence-based in the sense that rigorous scientific evaluation should not assume but prove their effectiveness and efficiency. There is still a lot of work to be done in this area.
Empowering consumers and patients
By making drug knowledge bases and personal electronic records accessible to consumers via the Internet, e-health opens new avenues for patient-centered medicine and enables evidence-based patient choice. Fostering a new relationship between patient and health professional, towards a true partnership, where decisions are shared.
education
Enable information exchange and communication in a standardized way between healthcare institutions for the education of physicians (continuing medical education) and consumers (health education, consumer-friendly preventive information) through online sources.
pervaded
Expanding the reach of healthcare beyond its conventional boundaries. I meant it both in a geographical sense and in a conceptual sense. E-Health enables consumers to access health services online from providers worldwide. These services can range from simple consultations to more complex interventions or products such as medication.
Morality
E-health involves new forms of patient-physician interactions and poses new challenges and threats to ethical issues such as online professional practice, informed consent, privacy and equity issues.
equity
Making healthcare fairer is the promise of e-health, but there is a substantial threat that e-health could deepen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots". Those who do not have money, skills and access to computers and networks cannot use computers effectively. As a result, these patient populations (those who would actually benefit most from health information) are unlikely to benefit from advances in information technology unless political systems ensure fair access for all. The digital divide currently runs between rural vs. urban populations, rich vs. poor, young vs. old, male vs. female populations, and neglected/rare vs. common diseases.
Besides these 10 essentials e's, e-health should be
easy to use,
Entertaining (no one will use something that's boring!) and exciting
and it must exist!
We invite other views on the definition of e-health and hope that over time the journal will be filled with articles that together define the field of e-health.
Gunther Eisenbach
editor,
Journal of Medical Internet Research
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