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Figure 2. Large number of stakeholders involved in the care process
delay between ambulant care, home care and nurs-
ing homes. Insufficient communication processes
affect the quality of care and nursing due to time
delay and the risk of errors due to repeated data
inquiry, and thus the quality of life for elderly
people or patients in general (Ament-Rambow,
2003). However, without standardizing technol-
ogy and content, suboptimal care is inevitable
(Bopp-Kistler, Hafner, & Rüegger-Frey, 2004).
patients. Eysenbach, for example, defines it as
“… a commitment to networked, global think-
ing, to improve healthcare locally, regionally and
worldwide by using information and communica-
tion technology” (Eysenbach, 2001). eHealth is
an emerging field in the intersection of medical
informatics, public health and business. “In a
broader sense, the term characterizes not only a
technical development, but also an attitude and a
commitment for improving locally, regionally and
worldwide healthcare by using information and
communication technology” (Eysenbach, 2001).
eHealth is often used as a synonym of telehealth
or telemedicine, which usually refer to all tech-
nologies and healthcare services supported by IT
designed to improve the people's health.
According to the Europe's Information Society,
eHealth stands for “Information and Communi-
cation Technologies (ICT) tools and services for
health. Whether eHealth tools are used behind the
scenes by health care professionals, or directly by
patients, they play a significant role in improv-
ing the health of European citizens.” (European
Commission, 2010).
eHealth
Integrated, round-the-clock patient care is
becoming one of the key topics for IT applica-
tions in eHealth. However, there is no common
agreement about a proper definition for the term
eHealth. eHealth refers to all forms of electronic
healthcare delivered over the internet, includ-
ing informational, educational and commercial
products and services offered by professionals,
non-professionals or businesses. Additional the
term describes concepts for information and
communication technologies (ICT) including all
functions which affect the health of citizens and
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