Citizen Access to Ehealth Services in County of Blekinge
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Master Thesis Computer Science Thesis no: MCS-2008:48 Jan 2009 January 2009 Citizen Access to eHealth Services in County of Blekinge Farrukh Sahar, Muhammad Asim Department of Interaction and System Design School of Engineering Blekinge Institute of Technology Box 520 SE – 372 25 Ronneby This thesis is submitted to the Department of Interaction and System Design, School of Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science. The thesis is equivalent to 20 weeks of full time studies. Contact Information: Author(s): Farrukh Sahar Address: Folkparksvagen 19:17, 372 40 Ronneby, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] Muhammad Asim Address: Folkparksvagen 19:17, 372 40 Ronneby, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] University advisor(s): Hans Kyhlbäck Department of Interaction and System Design Department of Internet : www.bth.se/tek Interaction and System Design Phone : +46 457 38 50 00 Blekinge Institute of Technology Fax : + 46 457 102 45 ii Box 520 SE – 372 25 Ronneby Sweden ABSTRACT In the presence of challenges arise from ageing populations, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, high health care cost, rapid changes in technological equipment and medical knowledge, eHealth offers tremendous abilities to develop and deliver health care services to the end user that is both seamless and integrated according to the needs and requirements of individuals. Even though the prospective of eHealth is accepted in academia as well as among policy-makers, health care planners and health care practitioners, the implementation of its applications has appeared to be difficult then expectations. In order for successful implementation of eHealth, it is necessary to offer eHealth services according to the citizens and patients expectations. The purpose of this study was to investigate citizens‘ accessing the eHealth services in the county of Blekinge by identifying the accessible, currently accessed, projected and imagined eHealth services. The knowledge from this study would be supportive to the regional health authorities to understand the citizens‘ needs and requirements for a successful delivery of eHealth services in county of Blekinge. In the first phase through extensive review of the literature the eHealth services which are more in health care practices within European countries were identified. On the basis of findings of first phase interviews were conducted to know strategies plans regarding eHealth services. After analysis of interviews, questionnaire was conducted to know the citizens opinions about eHealth services. The authors find that, after understanding the success criteria of effectively running eHealth services within European countries, many eHealth services could be implemented successfully in the county of Blekinge. The rules of interoperability among Hospitals, GP‘s, Primary Cares and Dental Services would provide substantial benefits to citizens and they can access the eHealth services whenever and wherever they want. Moreover in future citizens would have eHealth services according to their expectation. Keywords: Blekinge County Council, County of Blekinge, eHealth, eHealth services, Citizens access. iii Acknowledgement In the name of Allah who is the most gracious and merciful. We are very thankful to our creator who blessed us with capability to do this thesis. We are grateful to our supervisor Hans Kyhlbäck for his guidance at every step during our thesis. It was not possible for us to finish our thesis without his support and invaluable feedback. We really acknowledge his efforts for giving us time from his busy schedule and contributions to enhance our knowledge on the subject. We are also very thankful to all our friends and brothers for their moral support and informal discussion throughout this thesis. All praises goes to our parents; we are here due to their efforts and support. We dedicate our thesis to our respective families. iv Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................ iv Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Background ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 eHealth Concepts ........................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 National Strategy for eHealth - Sweden ........................................................................................ 5 1.3 County of Blekinge ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Health Websites Interfaces ............................................................................................................ 7 1.5 HCI Concepts ................................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2: Problem Definition/Goals .................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Research Questions ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Goals and Measures for the Study ............................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3: Research Methodology .................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Literature review ......................................................................................................................... 14 3.3 Informal Discussion .................................................................................................................... 14 3.4 Interview ...................................................................................................................................... 14 3.5 Questionnaire............................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 4: eHealth Study Areas ........................................................................................................ 16 4.1 eHealth ........................................................................................................................................ 16 4.2 ICT and eHealth .......................................................................................................................... 17 4.3 The 10 e's in eHealth ................................................................................................................... 17 4.4 eHealth Tools .............................................................................................................................. 19 4.5 eHealth Services .......................................................................................................................... 20 4.6 The European eHealth Action Plan ............................................................................................. 24 4.7 eHealth Needs.............................................................................................................................. 34 4.8 HCI Study Area ........................................................................................................................... 34 4.9 Website Interface Design Guidlines ............................................................................................ 35 4.10 Interface Design Practices ......................................................................................................... 37 4.11 Principles of User Interface Design ........................................................................................... 38 4.12 User Interface Design Guidelines .............................................................................................. 38 Chapter 5: Interview ........................................................................................................................... 40 5.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 40 5.2 Selection of Interviewees ............................................................................................................ 40 5.3 Interview Execution Planning ..................................................................................................... 40 5.4 Designing and Conducting the Interview .................................................................................... 41 5.5 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 41 5.6 Interview Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 41 v Chapter 6: Questionnaire ..................................................................................................................