A methodological and operative framework for the evaluation of an e-health project

✍ Scribed by Luca Buccoliero; Stefano Calciolari; Marta Marsilio

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 122 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6753
• DOI: 10.1002/hpm.881

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Assessing public sector ICT investments represents the premise for successful implementation of an e‐health strategy. The recent literature stresses the importance of going beyond the mere financial and/or technical dimensions of the analysis. Consequently, the paper proposes an example of e‐health project evaluation aiming to develop measures which get close to the notion of benefits to the different stakeholders involved: top management, patients, local community. The case study refers to an Italian health care organization that implemented a project of digitalization of its clinical reports production few years ago. Based on on‐field research, different approaches are used to assess costs and benefits from different stakeholders' perspectives. The results of a multidimensional evaluation are reported to emphasize the need for different measures to assess the sustainability of an e‐health project according to the financial convenience, the social role of the organization, and the contingent situation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.