Over the past decade, we have been exposed to an unprecedented number of information and communication technologies that have promised to affect health care. We have witnessed the breathtaking expansion of the internet and the launch of numerous personal electronic assistants, with smart phones and wireless personal organisers leading the pack. Most high income countries have allocated substantial resources to integrating electronic health information systems and many of their citizens now have access to the internet.
During the same decade some disturbing changes took place. Most “dot com” companies rose and fell, leaving their promises for radical change unfulfilled. In the countries with the requisite tools and the infrastructure, doctors continued to resist using them in clinical practice. Many telehealth initiatives emerged, but many also disappeared, leaving a trail of unclear returns on investment. At the same time, the digital divide across the world widened. Clearly, the revolution in technology has not reached the most needy; it is unclear whether it is even helping the most privileged.
In April 2004 the BMJ will publish a theme issue on eHealth applications. To avoid falling into semantic traps, and for the purposes of this theme issue, an eHealth application is defined as any use of an electronic information and communication technology to promote health or improve health care.
The main intention of this issue is to try to address a range of questions. What is the impact of eHealth innovations on the health system? Are we healthier because of them? What are the most promising innovations? What are the toughest barriers hindering their adoption? What do we know about strategies to overcome these barriers? Will eHealth applications lead to a fairer world?
We would like to encourage researchers to submit original articles before 15 October 2003. The scope of the issue is purposely wide, as we see it as a unique opportunity to illustrate the diversity of eHealth applications and the ways in which they could transform health and health services.
We would like to see studies on the effects of health information portals, multimedia applications and virtual reality, portable computers, wearable or implanted devices, electronic health records and other health information systems, telehealth initiatives, or any other emerging technologies. We would also like to see studies addressing the use of information and communication technologies for and by diverse groups of people, including health professionals and other caregivers, researchers, policy makers, journalists, lawyers, insurers, marketers, patients, and the public in a variety of different countries, cultures, and settings.
We are very interested in learning about the role of eHealth innovations in improving health or health care in all age groups, the healthy and the very sick, the illiterate and the highly educated, the very poor and the very affluent. We would like to learn more about how these innovations could enable people of different ethno-cultural backgrounds to optimise their health or to help level the playing field across groups. We are interested in different settings, as we would like to see evidence of the impact of these technologies when they are used at home, at school, in the workplace, and in health institutions. We would also like to see how eHealth applications are changing the notion of place, presence and time.
So, anything goes, as long as the studies provide new, interesting, and valid evidence that could shed light on how eHealth applications could help people, regardless of who or where they are, to optimise their health while making efficient use of resources.
Submit your manuscript to http://submit.bmj.com/, mentioning in your covering letter that your article is intended for the eHealth theme issue.