An Expository Discourse of E-Health

Population health patterns alter the disease burden, while a higher level of education and increased availability of information raise expectations of healthcare delivery. Therefore, changes in healthcare delivery have become so widespread and numerous that the idea of e-health has become one of excitement and prediction rather than intervention. On the other hand, the endorsement e-health is spreading slowly. Few companies focus on population-oriented e-health tools partly because of perceptions about the viability and capacity of the market. Moreover, developers of e-health resources are a highly diverse group with differing skills and resources while a common problem for developers is finding the balance between risk and outcome. On the other hand, e-health presents risks to patient health information that involve not only appropriate protocols but also laws, regulations, and appropriate safety culture. Breaches of network security and international viruses have elevated the public awareness of online information and computer security, although the overwhelming majority of security breaches do not directly involve health-related data. Finally, as we believe in the implications of the genetic components of disease, we expect a significant increase in the genetic information of clinical records. The future vision is mobile-personalized e-health in a patient centered and patient safety context.