| EHEALTH |
"eHealth is the single-most important revolution in healthcare since the advent of modern medicine, vaccines, or even public health measures like sanitation and clean water". [Silber, 2003]
The term e-Health (E-Health, eHealth ...) has been in use since the year 2000. e-health encompasses much of medical informatics but tends to prioritise the delivery of clinical information, care and services rather than the functions of technologies. No single consensus, all-encompassing definition of eHealth exists - the term tends to be defined in terms of a series of characteristics specified at varying levels of detail and generality (see next section). The term is not included in the MeSH taxonomy but most of the topics typically classified as being part of e-health are encompassed within the medical informatics MeSH tree.
Throughout many western national healthcare services, extensive e-Health infrastructures and systems are now viewed as central to the future provision of safe, efficient, high quality, citizen-centred health care. (Information on current national e-Health implementation programmes, centred on the deployment of national information infrastructures and electronic medical record systems is provided on OpenClinical.)
Though current technological developments are essentially limited to developed countries, e-Health is now a global topic. It was discussed at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003 and at the World Health Assembly in May 2005. The World Health Organisation has established various e-Health initiatives, such as the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) in 2005 which aims "to provide Member States with strategic information and guidance on effective practices, policies and standards in eHealth". The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held with the participation of 175 countries (second phase, 16-18 November 2005, Tunis), affirmed its commitment to "improving access to the world's health knowledge and telemedicine services, in particular in areas such as global cooperation in emergency response, access to and networking among health professionals to help improve quality of life and environmental conditions".
In Europe, e-Health forms a major part of the European Commission eEurope action plan. The EU has set out ambitious plans for its member states envisaging the definition of health data interoperability standards by the end of 2006, the implementation of health information networks by 2008 and "online services such as teleconsultation (second medical opinion), e-prescription, e-referral, telemonitoring and telecare" by the end of 2008.
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 Link 1 : www.openclinical.org/e-Health.html  |
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