E-Health: a novel way to redesigning healthcare

Electronic healthcare (e-health) will significantly alter the way physicians practise medicine [1, 2]. Electronic medical records with specialised software programs can increase the quality of patient care, reduce unnecessary medical tests, and directly connect with pharmacies to transmit prescriptions. Electronic communication allows physicians to respond to patients’ clinical concerns and questions, and Internet access can provide physicians better access to literature. One of those e-health aspects is remote patient care, which has made considerable progress in remote monitoring of ICD patients [3–7]. Nevertheless, there is significant physician hesitance about implementing medical computerisation: patient email can potentially overload physicians with additional work, websites can direct patients to poor medical information, the computerised interface can degrade the patient-physician relationship, and health regulations can create concern over electronic privacy issues. The finances of e-health appear promising, yet conflicting studies create uncertainty. However, if managed appropriately, the potential disadvantages of e-health can be minimised, and the benefits of e-health in clinical practices can be obtained [1]. In the present issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal, Treskes et al. [8] extensively discuss the current status of health-monitoring devices and the implementation of individualised healthcare services. The authors state that the consumer market for personal healthcare devices is developing rapidly and with the current healthcare-related investments by technological companies it can be expected that