title: The changing role of health care IC card systems.
abstract: Health care researchers and professionals have had increasing interest in the development of Internet-based solutions in health care, casting doubt on the future of IC card systems. However, IC cards used in conjunction with Internet-based health information systems may be more viable than either system alone. We conducted a worldwide survey to explore the possibilities of such a combined system. Our analysis shows that there is considerable awareness of the concept of Internet-based health care services among the professionals of IC card projects. In addition, our results indicate that IC cards could play a major role in health care systems as authorization keys that permit access to health information.
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics Department, Kyoto University Hospital, Japan. arwa@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alkhateeb
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mandil
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sekita
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D010355:Patient Identification Systems; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine