Special issue introduction: e-future.

Abstract

Without exception, all countries of the OECD are experiencing exponentially increasing healthcare costs [1]. Most have agreed that technology and more specifically e-health holds the key [2]. Although many definitions exist, e-health essentially involves the application of ICTs (information communication technologies) to support and facilitate the range of healthcare functions concerned with the practice and delivery of care [3, 4, 5, 6]. Moreover, e-health; also includes the digitising of various healthcare processes and tasks including e-billing, e-payment, e-prescription, e-radiology and e-records [6]. What becomes important then is to understand the key challenges, barriers and facilitators when designing e-health solutions so that they will indeed serve to realize a healthcare value proposition of excellence in access, quality and value and serve to ensure a better future for healthcare delivery. This, in turn, requires consideration of the key future trends that will significantly impact healthcare [2], namely: (i) escalating healthcare costs (ii) empowered consumers (iii) e-health adaptability (iv) a shift to focus on healthcare prevention as well as cure (v) an increase in non-communicable (chronic) diseases (vi) an aging population (vii) impact on health insurance (iix) workforce shortages (ix) the role of data and information (x) the importance of security and privacy