Journal of medical Internet research
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Nov 2005
What is eHealth (5): a research agenda for eHealth through stakeholder consultation and policy context review.
In 2003, the National Health Service in England and Wales, despite its large investment in information and communication technology, had not set a national research agenda. The National Health Service has three main research and development programs: one is the Service Delivery and Organisation program, commissioned in 2003, and the others are two parallel "scoping exercises" to help set a research agenda. This paper reports on one of those projects. A parallel literature review was carried out by others and has been reported elsewhere. ⋯ The scope of eHealth research (using, processing, sharing, controlling information) derived empirically from this study corresponds with "textbook" descriptions of informatics. Stakeholders would like eHealth research to include outcomes such as improved health or quality of life, but such research may be long term while changes in information technology are rapid. Longer-term research questions need to be concerned with human behavior and our use of information, rather than particular technologies. In some cases, "modelling" longer-term costs and benefits (in terms of health) may be desirable.