E-health

Delivering Healthcare Processes Everywhere

E-health

Definition:• The application of Internet and other related

technologies in the healthcare industry to improve the access, efficiency, effectiveness and quality of clinical and business processes utilized by healthcare organizations, practitioners, patients, and consumers in an effort to improve the health status of patients

» Source: Marconi, Jennifer. (May, 2002) E-Health: Navigating the Internet for Health Information Healthcare, Advocacy White Paper. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Dimensions of E-health

• Deliver key information to healthcare partners• Provide health information delivery services • Facilitate the integration of healthcare industry-

related business processes• Support local and remote access to healthcare

information• Connect employers and employees, payors and

providers, suppliers and customers• Enable healthcare delivery beyond the walls of

the facility

E-health Boundaries

• E-health is not a surrogate for the clinician– Provides means to extend the reach of the provider

beyond a face-to-face patient encounter

• E-health does not force interaction – Assist clinician collaboration through file sharing,

email and electronic medical record systems

• E-health does not replace existing infrastructure applications – Facilitates processes to expedite delivery and

improve the quality of the services provided both locally and remote

E-health Boundaries (cont’d)

• E-health is not the routing hardware or the networking software – It uses those to deliver the information

needed to improve health status

• E-health is not limited to providers – It empowers those involved in health-related

activities to directly participate in their care and work efforts

Demand forhealth/disease information

Maintain and grow market share

Improve quality of care

Desire to seek efficiencies throughout health value chain

Need to leverage economies of scale

Reduce administrative cost of health services

Improve Disease state management

Empower employees Create more efficient and

effective internal processes

Increase retention

Growth solutions to increasemarket share

Desire to Save Time Revolutionize the care

delivery process Improve quality of care

Clinician Focused

Employer/Employee SupportEmployer/Employee Support

Business & Trading Partners

Health ConsumerismHealth Consumerism

Integrated Integrated

Health SystemHealth System

E-health Connectivity

B2P

B2C

B2E

B2B

Source: Cap Gemini/ Ernst & Young

E-relationships Business Provider Consumer

(Patient)

Government Employee

Business (Insurer, Supplier, Employer, Heathcare Facility)

B2B B2P B2C B2G B2E

Provider P2P P2C P2G

Consumer (Patient) C2C C2G

Government G2G

Employee G2E

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/exercisingforahealthyheart.html

More Examples of E-health Services

• Teledermatology – Delivery of images (video and fixed) to multiple

separate locations for diagnosis

• Inter-facility PACS Systems– Immediate access to x-rays and CAT scan on-line

• Home Care Support– Remote retrieval of patient history, orders,

prescriptions and documentation

• Self-Reporting Services– Patient sends results of insulin or other tests

electronically through telephone lines

E-health Issues

• Privacy of Patient-specific Information• Quality and currency of information delivered• Appropriateness of care• Legal Issues• Provider Compensation and Liability• Availability of equipment and resources to all

socio-economic groups• Education level of patients• Standards for interchange of information

E-health Areas for Future Study

• Identifying Barriers and Solutions to Delivery of Care

• Ranking methods for e-health solutions• Improvements to physician/provider acceptance • Establishing reimbursement processes and

valuation for e-health care• Simplifying delivery of services• Developing GUIs to improve patient adoption

and use• Identifying value-add applications for the various

relationships (P2E, etc.)