A subjective evaluation of attitudes towards E-health

E-health, the provision of healthcare services via the Internet, has the potential to

address the limited capacity of the healthcare system and thereby improve health outcomes.

While there is considerable development of e-health services in practice, research in this

important area often lags practice and takes a restricted view of user needs. The study

presented in this paper undertakes a holistic evaluation of perceptions of e-health services and

tools by addressing the activities of diverse stakeholders from healthcare practitioners to the

general public. The research uses Q-methodology to explore the opportunities, challenges,

barriers, and potential benefits of e-health to guide the development of a holistic e-health

strategy that targets all stakeholders. Q methodology is a research design that provides a

foundation for the systematic study of subjectivity and so is appropriate as a way of fostering

deep understandings of e- health phenomena from different user perspectives. A three factor

solution was selected for the interpretation of the data. Our finding suggests that government

authorities and healthcare providers should be aware of the existence of health literacy issue

as well as other issues among diverse users of the health system. The design of universal

(ubiquitous) online health systems must accommodate users with different skills, knowledge,

age, gender, and disabilities.