Challenges and Hurdles of eHealth Implementation in Developing Countries.
Health informatics has the potential to improve the security and quality of patient care, but its impact has varied between developed and developing countries. Related to this, the objective of this study is to identify the challenges and hurdles to improve eHealth in developing countries. We surveyed experts to discover their opinions about five general questions: economic support by Government for eHealth, Government education or training projects in the field, issues related to cultural or educational problems for the implementation of eHealth, policies in terminology or messaging standards and eHealth status policies for long periods. The respondents answered affirmatively in these proportions: 1. Economic support policies 58%, 2. Training policies 25%, 3. Cultural and educational problems 95%, 4. Standards policies, 38%, 5. Policies for long periods, 50%


CONCLUSIONS
Our survey has shown that the important problems that need to be addressed in order to implement e-Health in developing countries are firstly, cultural and educational, secondly, economic resources and thirdly policies for long periods.
Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
H F
HF
Mandirola Brieux
UNICEF, Bangladesh.
J H
JH
Bhuiyan Masud
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India.
S
S
Kumar Meher
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India.
V
V
Kumar
HL7 Colombia, Bogota, Colombia.
F
F
Portilla
SUEIIDISS, Montevideo, Uruguay.
S
S
Indarte
Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
D
D
Luna
Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
C
C
Otero
Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
P
P
Otero
Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
F González
FG
Bernaldo de Quirós
D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003906:Developing Countries; D063005:Health Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*