The extent of the online presence of health authorities, hospitals and available online health services in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This paper examined the online presence of the health authorities and hospitals in the seven Emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the available online health services in this country. The study looked at the web presence of health authorities and then searched for the websites of hospitals in UAE using different sources. We calculated the number and percentages of hospitals that have online presence. Then we visited the website of each hospital to check if they offer online health services. Thus we were able to present quantitative findings of the extent of the web presence of health authorities, government and private hospitals, and also the types of online health services available in this country. We found that out of the 7 Emirates, only 2 have health authorities with online services and only 4 Emirates have hospitals that offer online health services. The online health services available in UAE are: Make an Inquiry, Book an Appointment, Find a Doctor and Ask a Doctor. We also provide at the end of this paper, the complete list of all hospitals in the UAE with an online presence with their website links since this information was not present collectively anywhere.