C52.
Katz, J. E., Rice, R. E.,
& Acord, S. (2006). Uses of internet and mobile technology in
health
systems: Organizational and sociocultural issues in a comparative
context. In
M. Castells & G. Cardoso (Eds.), The network society: From
knowledge to
policy. Washington:
Brookings Institution Press. Translated in:
Utilizações
da Internet e da tecnologia móvel nos sistemas de saúde:
Temas organizacionais
e sócio-culturais num contexto comparativo. In M. Castells &
G. Cardoso
(Eds.) (2005). A sociedade em rede. Do conhecimento à
acção política
(pp. 175-195). Lisbon: INCM (Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda).
The Internet provides an opportunity to the
public and healthcare professionals to access medical and health
information,
improve the efficiency and effective, timely healthcare. The rise of
mobile
systems and the widespread adoption of the cell phone mean that mobile
applications are an exciting and rapidly expanding domain for such
applications.
Many new offerings are being developed through digital appliances,
computer
terminals and mobile devices. Yet important empirical questions remain
to be
answered at every level about how effective these systems are, how
people in various
socio-demographic sectors actually use these systems, what their
different
effects are on those sectors, and whether their expense justifies the
efforts
involved. Important too are issues of how quickly and in what format
they
should be created, who should bear the costs of development and
dissemination, how
to ensure their dependability and sustainability, and what their
immediate and
longer term social implications might be. In this chapter, we focus on
delineating some recent developments in the use of the Internet and
related
technologies for healthcare. The emphasis is on the situation in the US, though we draw on other countries,
especially Portugal
and its relation to the European Union, as well for comparative and
descriptive
purposes. We try to highlight the macro social issues that could be of
interest
to policy-makers and suggest possibilities that could merit
consideration by
system designers or healthcare service professionals.
Click
here for PDF copy of publication