Global Observatory for eHealth

21 April 2009

eHealth Worldwide

  • Canada's e-health journey and HIMSS Analytics' Canada Information and Communications Technology Study (2009 - Healthc Q.) NoFull Text
    In spring 2007, HIMSS Analytics began developing its first Canada Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Study. Less than one year later, 38 RHAs, DHAs and HAs are already on board, with some 20 more scheduled to participate by year's end. Why are so many Canadian provincial healthcare delivery organizations now participating in HIMSS Analytics' Canada ICT Study? The answer is tied to the character of the HIMSS study, the value offered to all participants and specific Canadian healthcare issues that are addressed by the study.
  • Germany:E-health in emergency medicine - the Research project Med-on-@ix. (2009 - Anaesthesist.)
    There is a need for new strategies to face current and future problems in German Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Lack of quality management and increasing costs in the presence of a deficit of EMS physicians are typical challenges, resulting in an increasing deficit in medical care. In addition, information and communication technology used in German EMS is out of date. The physician-powered EMS has to be modernized to increase quality and show measurable evidence of its effectiveness.
  • India: Connected Healthcare: Concept and Feasibility (April 2009 - eHealthMagazine)
    The healthcare system generates enormous amounts of information everyday, and managing it is a big challenge for all the healthcare entities. Over time, healthcare entities have understood the value of technology-based systems to support their processes, functions, streamline operations and manage information generated. For this, all entities have made significant investments in IT in order to improve efficiency and productivity.
  • Portugal: Trends of internet use for health matters in Portugal: 2005-2007 (2009 - Acta Med Port.)
    Health professionals are still considered as the most important source of health information but their perceived importance has decreased 10% (IC 95%, -12.6, -7.6) between 2005 and 2007, the higher negative variation in this period. Family, friends and colleagues have registered the higher positive variation. In 2007, the Internet was rated as the most important source of health information by those using the Internet for health or illness purposes. In Portugal, the Internet assumes an increasingly important role as a source of health information. Moreover, it seems it is being promoting equitable access to health information. Increasingly challenging situations are expected during the medical consultation.
  • UK: BMA launches consultation on how to improve GP services (1 April 2009 - Healthcare IT)
    Laurence Buckman, MD, Chairman of the BMA's GPs Committee, said: "We want to gather examples of good and innovative practice across all areas of service, such as how practices use telephony systems, their use of the internet for repeat prescription ordering or appointment booking, or how they have improved communication between practices and their patients.
  • US: Interoperable electronic prescribing in the United States: a progress report. (April 2009 - Health Affaires)
    Although the vast majority of U.S. physicians still handwrite prescriptions, adoption of electronic prescribing is slowly growing. Major barriers to adoption remain, including the inability to electronically submit prescriptions for controlled substances and confusion about standards for data exchange. Federal and state governments and private insurers are using payment and policy incentives to boost e-prescribing because they still believe in its promise for improving the quality and efficiency of health care. However, additional efforts and further investments are needed to reap the benefits of e-prescribing on a national scale.

Scientific Articles

Publications

  • History of Telemedicine, Rashid L. Bashshur, PhD and Gary W. Shannon, PhD (April 2009)
    provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the evolution of telemedicine from ancient Greece to the present time. It places the development of this field in the context of the never ending quest for providing equitable access to health care and re-casting the medical care landscape, while trying to assure quality and contain cost. The book describes the origin of modern telemedicine in experiments such as those by Willem Einthoven’s 1905 long distance transfer of electrocardiograms through the pioneering era of teleradiology and telepsychiatry of the 1950s, its coming of age in the 1970s, its maturation in the 1990s, and finally the recent transformation and adoption by the mainstream.

Articles

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