Opportunities and challenges in the deployment of global e-health

In developed countries, e-health has rapidly evolved from the delivery of online medical content toward the adaptation of generic e-commerce solutions to the processing of health-related administrative transactions and logistical support of clinical tasks. E-health is perceived as being particularly useful in the operational support of the new decentralised and collaborative healthcare models being implemented in many countries. Heretofore designed for large organisations and industrialised countries, e-health solutions are being increasingly proposed as an answer to the many health system management problems and healthcare demands faced by health organisations in developing societies. There are hard lessons to be learned from e-commerce, e-government, and e-health achievements and failures in developed countries and a careful examination of those experiences, vis-a-vis the characteristics of the health sector, organisational preparedness, and technological infrastructure of developing countries is a helpful exercise in the selection of appropriate e-health design and deployment strategies.