Consensus on eHealth Definitions

There is a significant degree of attention and focus on ehealth initiatives globally; ehealth frequently forms a component of healthcare strategy and policy, and is represented in pro-jects, financial outlays, cost benefit, outcomes, clinical process improvement, safety and qual-ity, and addressing the challenges facing healthcare.
Activities, which are described as implementing ehealth solutions, attract significant funding, and consume many resources and much time.
However, despite the frequency with which the term is used, there does not appear to be a general consensus about the meaning of ‘ehealth’. While there appears to be near-unanimous support for ehealth and its benefits, there is much less agreement about what ehealth actually represents. Many definitions have been proposed, but there has so far not been any universal agreement about what things might be excluded or included within the scope of the term.
This project explores the possibilities of reaching an international consensus on the use of the term eHealth in order to avoid misunderstandings in the professional discourse, and to clarify the potential and scope of eHealth applications.