Analysis of Factors Influencing Introduction of e-Health: A Case Study of Estonia

Shio Bo, So Morikawa

information and communication technology (ICT), e-health, diffusion bottlenecks, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

June 2017

ISERD International Conference

http://www.worldresearchlibrary.org/up_proc/pdf/876-150069594307-14.pdf

74 th ISERD International Conference

Many countries around the world have been trying to introduce e-health to solve health problems. However,
countries trying to introduce e-health often face various problems preventing successful introduction. In order to identify
bottlenecks and influencing factors that help to overcome them, we studied the implementation process of Electronic Health
Record (EHR) in Estonia, which is said to be one of the most advanced countries in terms diffusion of e-health, adapting
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). We identified three bottlenecks in diffusion process; 1) healthcare providers do not
start to use EHR in the beginning; 2) healthcare providers stop using EHR when the number of users are small; and 3) the
number of citizens using EHR do not increase in the end. Estonia succeeded in overcoming these bottlenecks by increasing a
sense of expectation or giving a pressure to healthcare providers (bottlenecks 1,2) and by introducing new services (bottleneck 3).