E-Health: a position statement of the European Society of Cardiology.

Abstract

e-Health encompasses the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the support of health and health-related activity.1 It can be subdivided into several domains, listed in Table 1 .2 View this table: Table 1 The domains of e-health, involving healthcare administration and support, education, healthcare delivery, and research e-Health has the potential to provide innovate solutions to health issues, and is often viewed by politicians and healthcare professionals as a key ‘enabling’ technology to improve care and the experience of care for the those living with chronic conditions, particularly at a time of constrained healthcare funding. Behind all of this stands the individual/citizen/patient/customer, who is increasingly familiar with ICT and expects to find it supporting modern healthcare delivery, facilitating more personalized and person-centred care at the right time and in the right place. In theory, technological innovation should bring better inter-professional co-operation, information sharing, decision support, and flexibility to the healthcare system. However, there are important societal and professional constraints that reduce the impact of such innovation, including legal, ethical, and data protection issues. Healthcare professionals may be resistant to such innovation, particularly if the technologies are considered to be ‘solutions seeking a problem’ and where the evidence for the impact on quality of care is seen as less than robust. Indeed, ensuring proper integration of new technologies into the healthcare system is often difficult, requiring process redesign or ‘disruption’.6 Regulatory bodies, reimbursement authorities, and national and international political bodies often find it difficult to react quickly, or consistently, to this rapidly changing area. The European Union has an e-health action plan for 2012–2020, which states that the promise of ICT to increase efficiency, improve quality …