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Abstract:
E-health networks have recently emerged to provide network connectivity and collaboration among the multiple stakeholders involved in patient's care. They concern patients' diagnosis, follow-up, distance monitoring and treatment in primary health care settings, community based facilities or at patients' homes. Their wide adoption has been limited so far, by factors related to remoteness, acceptance by health care practitioners and patients, demonstrable positive clinical outcomes and cost savings, affordability, optimal technical integration, security and privacy issues.
But at times of accelerating health care costs, health care labour shortages, multidisciplinary specialization of the health care providers, increasing needs for maximal productivity and effectiveness their implementation is anticipated to be unavoidable.
The expected benefits include:
Delivery of the right patient care, at the right place by the right care provider
Reductions in emergency room visits, re-admission rates, length-of-stay and the use of other community services
Increased focus towards health promotion
Ability to share patient clinical information between providers over large geographic distances
Provision to consumers with more timely, accessible and convenient care.
Especially for the elderly, frequently suffering from chronic diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes, heart failure, cancer) and who will become the major problem for the care delivery system in the near future, there is an increased evidence of the networks' importance. They will additionally allow provision of high quality long term patient centered services, increased patients' autonomy and less dependence on care delivery, improved feelings of safety and increased patients' mobility within and between countries.
A clear telehealth policy and an integrated regulatory environment will strongly promote the implementation of the e-health networks to the every day clinical practice.
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