Building Foundations For Ehealth

The World Health Organization's (WHO) strategy on eHealth focuses on strengthening health systems in countries; fostering public-private partnerships in ICT research and development for health; supporting capacity building for eHealth application in member states; and the development and use of norms and standards. Success in these areas is predicated on a fifth strategic direction: investigating, documenting and analyzing the impact of eHealth and promoting better understanding by disseminating information. To that end, WHO undertook a global survey on eHealth with which to garner baseline data on the current state of eHealth. Executed between mid-2005 and mid-2006, it represents the first attempt to examine eHealth from a regional as well as global perspective. Developed and implemented by the Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe), the survey focused on processes and outcomes in key eHealth action lines previously identified by the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), which are supported by WHO as an overall framework for action.--Publisher's description.

"The principal authors were Carrie Beth Peterson (Consultant in eHealth and Innovation, WHO Regional Office for Europe), Clayton Hamilton (Editor-in-chief and Unit Leader, eHealth and Innovation in the Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation, WHO Regional Office for Europe) and Per Hasvold (WHO Collaborating Centre for eHealth and Telemedicine at the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine, Troms, Norway)."--Page viii.

This third global survey of the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) investigated how eHealth can support universal health coverage(UHC) in Member States. A total of 125 countries participated in the survey ? a clear reflection of the growing interest in this area. The report considers eHealth foundations built through policy development funding approaches and capacity building in eHealth through the training of students and professionals. It then observes specific eHealth applications such as mHealth telehealth electronic health records systems and eLearning and how these contribute to the goals of UHC. Of interest is the extent to which legal frameworks protect patient privacy in EHRs as health care systems move towards to delivering safer more efficient and more accessible health care. Finally the rapidly emerging areas of social media for health care as well as big data for research and planning are reported.

This book will help health system decision-makers identify key policy issues in developing an e-health strategy, and make the right decisions about the way forward. It can be used in workshops with a team of people from many different backgrounds, such as senior civil servants, doctors, nurses, healthcare managers, ICT managers and ICT suppliers.

Rapid progress in health research has led to generation of new knowledge and innovative practices in management of illness. This has resulted in a significant challenge for health professionals: if today we discovered a new therapy through research, when will this discovery be regularly prescribed or utilized to treat all patients suffering from this condition? Knowledge translation is the non-linear and often complicated process of translating knowledge into routine health practices. Technology enabled knowledge translation (TEKT) is the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to accelerate knowledge translation. With the ubiquity of the internet, the proliferation of different approaches in communication and social networking, and the continuously improving technologies from netbooks to smartphones, there are rich opportunities for TEKT in health education, service delivery, and research.

This book presents some recent systems engineering and mathematical tools for health care along with their real-world applications by health care practitioners and engineers. Advanced approaches, tools, and algorithms used in operating room scheduling and patient flow are covered. State-of-the-art results from applications of data mining, business process modeling, and simulation in healthcare, together with optimization methods, form the core of the volume. Systems Analysis Tools for Better Health Care Delivery illustrates the increased need of partnership between engineers and health care professionals. This book will benefit researchers and practitioners in health care delivery institutions, staff members and professionals of specialized hospital units, and lecturers and graduate students in engineering, applied mathematics, business administration and health care.