E-health adoption gaps in the decision-making process

Abstract

This paper provides a statistical analysis of the complex decision-making process related to the adoption of eHealth. The analysis refers to the state of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in the field of health under the perspective of the disparities within the European Union countries, Iceland and Norway. For this research, a composite index was developed for a multi-criteria evaluation of existing inequalities in the quality of life, public health system, and adoption of eHealth. The relative distance method was applied by combining different classification criteria, and returning a hierarchy of the European countries. Then, the disparities were considered based on the status of eHealth adoption, ranking the countries based on life quality and public health system. Results highlight that Romania, along with Latvia, Poland or Bulgaria, are characterised by the lowest level of public health efficiency, due to reduced health expenditures and a healthcare system self-assessed as unsatisfactory by a large proportion of the population. These results have essential implications in the public policies considered in order to reduce the existing gap towards the European average. In addition, a series of challenges are addressed in the direction of preventive strategies, in order to respond to the current pressures of the health systems.