Comparison of national e-health implementation in the United States and South Korea

Abstract

With the development of the health care industry, there has been growing recognition that e-health implementation is needed to improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of care. In addition, a review of previous studies suggests that much can be learned by investigating the difference in national e-health implementation in the United States and in South Korea. To this end, the main objective of this article is to compare the national e-health implementation in the case of the United States and South Korea. The results show that in the United States a decentralized e-health implementation is being followed by individual-level e-health. South Korea is pursuing ubiquitous health u-health after a hospital information system and electronic health were implemented. The United States still lags behind many other countries in the implementation of e-health, possibly due to its low uncertainty avoidance culture. South Korea has been among the frontrunner groups in e-health implementation as a consequence of its highly developed telecommunication infrastructures and high uncertainty avoidance culture. On the basis of these results, we recommend that establishing health care policies be done on a national scale that takes into account the countries' cultures.