E-health's promise for the developing world
Publisher/Organizer: Health Affairs, Special issue
Publication date: 2010, 2:229
Language: English
Overview
The issue’s cluster of e-health papers grew out of a Rockefeller Foundation conference on e-health that took place at the foundation’s famed Bellagio center in Italy in the summer of 2008. We are deeply grateful to the foundation for the financial support that enabled us to publish expanded and revised versions of those papers now.
In part, the papers constitute a broad review of the multiple e-health applications already in use in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. They also discuss issues to be addressed so that e-health’s potential can be achieved. These include establishing global "interoperability" standards for information exchange, and building a health informatics workforce with competencies tailored to various nations or regions. Also critical will be evaluating future e-health programs to make certain that what seems to be their potential is more than technological fantasy.