In the evolving era of technology, E-health is the inevitable progress in providing health services at a local level and global level. E-health technology is a direct source to expand healthcare services through internet communication technology with complete information. In simple means, it is composed of electronic health data exchange like Telehealth or Telemedicine. It is providing a vital role in global healthcare action because it is the simplest way to transfer high-quality health care and health resources electronically.
According to the World Health Organization, E-health helps health professionals and health consumers to deliver health information through the Internet and telecommunication services. WHO also states that the E-health also improves public health through the sources of e-commerce and the power of the IT. It directly improves public health because the training of health workers will be conducted through proper education. All E-health interventions are based on scientific researches and assessment which means that E-health interventions are evidence-based.
In the management of the health systems, the use of e-commerce and e-business is frequent to promote health care systems around the world. With the growing use of electronic technology, the use of E-health is also growing in various fields. Like, the E-health is applicable to Medical and health care management, health education, strategic health planning, medical education and training, patient care and support, preventive healthcare services, provision of health services, knowledge-based services in the medical field, electronic medical record, telemedicine communication, evidence-based medicine, machine learning and data analysis of global pandemics, epidemiological surveillance, and geographic information systems.
E-health technology ensures the provision of many benefits. At top priority, e-health reduces the cost by improving the efficiency of providing and treating people remotely. E-health reduces the cost because it provides the way of communication between the health care institutions and patients by avoiding physical meetings. It not only improves efficiency but also improves the quality of services. In improving the quality of services, it improves health care by focusing on quality assurance. At last, achieve the level of satisfaction from the patient.
Other than the above, E-health through the use of electronic devices, empowers the patients to access their electronic medical information through the internet. It also plays an incredible role to promote the relationship among health experts and patients. Hence, Health experts will be able to understand their patients with ease and they can treat their patients with mutual understanding as a new corporation will be built.
Education, knowledge, and awareness are important for medical experts, healthcare experts, health consumer or patients. So, E-health provides the online platform for both the medical experts and health consumers to get information about the latest medical techniques and their application. Also, health experts and patients will be able to communicate directly with each other consistently.
Furthermore, sharing of information by the patient to its health care expert will maintain the privacy of the patients with a complete and detailed medical case history. At last, E-health technology brakes the conservative boundaries as it provides opportunities to people to avail health services from international providers.
Recommendations For Digital Transformation of Health Services
Future health systems will undergo a significant change due to digital transformation.
Develop a strategy for the digital transformation of health care: This strategy needs to be created at and for the various relevant levels, taking into account the characteristics of health services as well as the mechanisms, such as education (for patients and professionals), incentives, and legislation, that will enable this development. objectives include encouraging transitions in care (from the hospital to the home), substitution, interoperability, and greater person-centeredness (via self-management, a focus on achieving life objectives, and collaborative decision-making). encouraging ‘digital solutions’ for specific problems to be developed and adopted.
Develop a coherent framework for monitoring and evaluating: Create a comprehensive framework for assessing the performance of systems, occupations, and services in light of recent and upcoming breakthroughs in digitalization. Such a framework should ideally include guidelines for which technologies should be formally examined, how the process of selection, evaluation, decision-making, and implementation should be structured, as well as guidelines for how those and other technologies should be monitored. The interdependencies between centralised and decentralized decisions will also be highlighted by such a cohesive framework, which will also help to prevent any blind spots and improve consistency in evaluation and monitoring. It must specify how, when, and by whom monitoring and assessment should be conducted. A framework like this is especially important for centralized decision-making at the national or regional level.
Invest in systematic evaluation procedures: Clear evaluation processes should be developed by the appropriate authorities. Such procedures, which are undeveloped for digital health services, at their core contain the legal framework for evaluation. This would include evaluating the risks associated with both new and existing technologies in terms of their costs, effectiveness, quality, and safety, as well as issues like cybersecurity and privacy. The legal framework also addresses issues like who is in charge of delivering the necessary evidence to the appropriate decision-maker.
Invest in monitoring: Systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of key performance indicators would be beneficial for health systems. This makes it possible to monitor how the health system performs and to take action if necessary if it does not. In-depth, systematic monitoring plans that are standard across Europe would make it easier to monitor, benchmark, and evaluate performance, open up new opportunities to spot underperformance, and encourage early intervention where necessary. Such systems can benefit from the digital transformation since it makes data collection and processing more effective. It can also be monitored.
Support decentralised/local level decision-making: Digital health services are one example of an innovation that enters the health system through lower level decision-making. This can have benefits like competitiveness and diversity as well as drawbacks like running multiple experiments at once and interoperability issues. Setting guidelines for which digital health services must undergo central evaluation is crucial, but given that not all interventions can or should undergo central evaluation, it is also crucial to strengthen lower level decision-making processes and align them with the objectives of the entire health system. Additionally, coordination to enhance interoperability needs to be given enough focus.
Be progressive but with caution: There is no denying that the digital transformation will have an impact on healthcare in the future, with both positive and negative consequences. While looking for opportunities is encouraged, it’s equally important to emphasize the need for prudence while implementing new digital health services. Consider all the costs and benefits, both intentional and unforeseen, before proceeding carefully. It’s essential to prevent injury, system failure, or service failure. Being progressive and conservative at the same time seems contradictory, but it simply means that adoption of innovations happens on the basis of data, sensibly, under management, and after ongoing evaluation.
