E-HEALTH APPLICATIONS in TURKEY

Abstract

Today's states are living the stage of information society after agriculture and industrial society level. The concepts such as speed, quality, efficiency and productivity have gained importance in the information society. The most important competitive tool in the information society is the acquisition of information and sharing among the institutions. The most important contribution of the information society to public administration reforms is the e-government, which provides advantages in terms of time and labour costs. E-government practices strengthen communication between citizens and administrative institutions. E-government is accelerating mutual communication between public institutions and increases communication possibilities. It makes public administrators accountable directly to the public. It prevents administrative corruption. It increases citizen participation in administrative processes and political practices in a democratic manner. The ehealth, which refers to the e-government's practices in the health sector, ensures that the services provided to all stakeholders are delivered quickly and easily in the field of health. Turkey is still in its first phase in e-health applications. Since the announcement of the health transformation program in 2003, many e-health projects have been developed and put into practice. This study aims to explain the concepts of information society and e-government, to examine and evaluate the e-health applications in Turkey. From a methodological point of view, the study discusses the e-health projects in Turkey in a methodological way starting from the literature on e-government theory. It demonstrates the contribution of e-health projects in Turkey’s e-transformation process.