Page 47 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO EXPLORING THE DIVIDED STANDARDS LANDSCAPE IN
E-HEALTH RESEARCH

Doyoung Eom, Heejin Lee

Yonsei University, Republic of Korea

ABSTRACT Standards play an important role with regards to e-health.
E-health standards enable reliable and interoperable
Based on the importance of standards in providing safe, information sharing over communication networks and
interoperable, and quality healthcare, a growing body of between devices in which common standards are agreed
literature explores e-Health services and systems in upon [4]. These standards enable interoperability among
combination with standards and standardization. Yet a ICT technologies and systems that are not made by the same
holistic approach to assess the state of academic research providers, provide common information formats for the
that involves standards and e-Health across diverse exchange of health-related data, or represent unified
disciplines has not been taken up to date. To understand the security structures [4]. However, standardization in the area
dynamics of e-Health standards, particularly on the role of e-Health is complicated because of the large installed
and effect of those standards, this paper systematically base of proprietary systems and technologies and the
reviews the standards landscape in e-Health research. We involvement of many stakeholders [5]. The core issue
found three key themes: first, standards for e-Health in surrounding e-Health is fragmentation. Legal frameworks
developed and developing countries; second, types of are fragmented, lack of interoperability hinders the
standards and their effects on interoperability, quality and continuum of care, each actor in the e-Health landscape is
security; third, implementation of standards in terms of specialized in its own practices, and the practices of
adoption by healthcare organizations and application in different agencies lack coordination. We are witnessing
the process of e-Health framework developments. This standardization efforts made at national and international
paper makes academic contributions by extracting common levels to achieve the goal of providing integrated, efficient,
themes across disciplines and intends to provide practical and secure healthcare services. Still, problems to be
implications for facilitating e-Health interventions while addressed include the adoption of new e-Health
taking the benefits and challenges associated with technologies, implementation and harmonization of e-
standards into consideration. Health standards, and the improvement of technological and
standards infrastructure in developing countries.
Keywords—e-Health, standards, standardization,
systematic review Since the term e-Health came into use in literature starting
from 2000 [6], studies on the topic of e-Health as well as e-
1. INTRODUCTION Health standards have been on the rise. Research in the
earlier years was aimed at discovering the definition and
The delivery of healthcare is going through a massive scope of e-Health in the academic environment. Some of
transformation process with the advances in information and them focused on mapping the scope of e-Health and
communication technology (ICT). Implementations of identifying where e-Health is positioned with respect to the
healthcare initiatives that incorporate ICT have been wider field of medical informatics [6]. In previous research,
undertaken in a number of countries such as the U.K., there was a general sense of optimism surrounding the
Denmark, Singapore, and Canada. These countries are potential benefits of e-Health to improve health care
seeking ICT implementations that go beyond the simple processes and patient outcomes [6]. Compared to the
digitalization of records towards systems that allow optimistic approaches, recent studies find barriers and
information sharing between providers [1] for the reduction facilitators as one of the major themes of e-Health research.
of healthcare expenditures and the improvement of In existing studies, barriers and facilitators that affect public
healthcare service delivery to patients. E-Health, defined as engagement with e-Health services [7], factors that
the use of ICT in support of health and health-related fields influence the implementation of e-Health systems [8], and
[2], has enabled such transformations. Main functions of e- healthcare professionals' organizational barriers to health
Health technologies are enabling the storage, retrieval, and information technologies [9] have been examined.
transmission of data, supporting clinical decisions, and
facilitating remote care [3]. Research that combines e-Health with standards is widely
found throughout diverse disciplines. Approaches and use
of standards made by standards development organizations

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