The wow factor of e-health.

Abstract

Some of the latest healthcare buzzwords are e-health, m-health or telemedicine. Is this the latest fad or is there indeed a lasting wow factor? The use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to support the achievement of health outcomes, namely, e-health has the potential to transform the manner in which health services are delivered. A plethora of applications are emerging though many also quickly disappearing and users are still unsure of the true e-health benefits. In this paper, we discuss the current trends in pervasive e-health with the hope that this endeavor will assist e-health scholars channel and focus their research efforts. Having extensively reviewed extant research, we focus on health education, electronic health records (HER), standardization, and m-health. We present two case vignettes to illustrate key aspects of success.