Proposal of Critical Success Factors for eHealth Services Deployment

Abstract

eHealth is widely recognized as the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in health. However, eHealth initiatives are still incipient in Latin America and the Caribbean, and, in many cases, restrictions in terms of access have been reported, also the necessary infrastructure, interoperability and scalability of these. This work proposes a set of critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of eHealth, which allow the identification of gaps, and the proposal of alternatives for the optimization of eHealth. It starts with the establishment of an eHealth domain, its scope and contributions, prior to the identification of key topics, and the establishment of every CSF, with support in guiding questions and metrics. The CSFs can facilitate the planning of projects or activities in eHealth, promoting strengths, either in ICT, management, or another of the involved topics. The CSFs must be employed with a criterion of flexibility and adequacy regarding the case in which they are applied. Finally, opportunities to evaluate and apply the CSFs in a specific context are set out.